WILLIAM   WHITNEY   RICE. 


WILLIAM  WHITNEY  RICE. 


BIOGRAPHICAL     SKETCH, 


BY 


ROCKWOOD    HOAR. 


ALSO 


THE   WHITNEY   NARRATIVE, 


BEING  AN  ACCOUNT  OF  THE 


WHITNEY    FAMILY, 


WRITTEN  BY  MR.  RICE. 


,  $*««.,  m.  £.  &. 

PRESS    OF    CHARLES    HAMILTON. 

311   MAIN   STREET. 

1897. 


THIS  sketch  of  Mr.  Rice  is  but  an  outline  of  the  life  that  was 
active,  busy  and  useful,  the  source  of  complete  happiness  to  those 
to  which  it  was  most  closely  allied.  Possessing  to  an  eminent 
degree  the  strong  qualities  and  public  spirit  that  make  a  man 
serviceable  to  his  fellow-men,  he  also  had  the  more  rarely  affec- 
tionate and  tender  nature  that  won  the  love  as  well  as  the  esteem 
of  those  with  whom  he  was  associated ;  and  it  is  hoped  that  his 
friends  may  be  glad  that  this  short  record  is  made  of  one  who 
"has  done  the  work  of  a  true  man,"  and  who  was  taken  away 
before  his  usefulness  was  ended. 

The  "Whitney  Narrative"  was  written  by  Mr.  Rice  the  year 
after  his  first  attack  of  serious  illness,  to  divert  and  relieve  the 
tedium  of  enforced  idleness.  Those  to  whom  he  read  it  thought 
it  interesting,  and  it  is  now  printed  with  the  hope  that  it  may  be 
valued  by  his  relatives  who  trace  with  him  their  descent  from  the 
Whitneys  of  Whitney,  and  by  his  friends  as  being  the  last  com- 
pleted writing  of  his  hand. 

A.  M.  K. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH. 


WILLIAM  WHITNEY  BICE,  son  of  The  Rev.  Benja- 
min Rice,  B.  U.,  1808,  and  Lucy  Whitney  Rice, 
daughter  of  Captain  Phinehas  Whitney,  of  Win- 
chendon,  was  born  in  Deerfield,  Massachusetts, 
March  7th,  1826,  and  died  in  Worcester,  Massa- 
chusetts, March  1st,  1896. 

He  was  seventh  in  descent  from  Edmund  Rice, 
who  came  from  Berkhampstead,  in  the  County  of 
Hertfordshire,  England,  and  settled  in  Sudbury, 
in  1638  or  1639. 

On  his  mother's  side  he  was  eighth  in  descent 
from  John  Whitney,  who  came  from  Whitney,  on 
the  banks  of  the  Wye,  and  settled  in  Watertown, 
June,  1635. 

Mr.  Rice  came  on  both  sides  from  the  best  New 
England  stock.  No  man  can  boast  a  better  lineage. 
His  ancestors  were  men  of  rugged  constitutions ;  of 
simple  habits  and  lives;  used  to  hard  work;  living  in 
an  invigorating  climate;  cautious  and  deliberate; 
accustomed  to  understand  and  to  deal  with  matters 
of  general  moment,  so  as  to  take  an  intelligent  part 
in  town  meeting,  on  the  jury,  in  the  legislature,  in 
town  or  church  affairs;  weighing  each  proposition 


6  WILLIAM  WHITNEY  EICE. 

advanced  from  platform  or  pulpit  in  the  balances  of 
conscience  and  common  sense;  self-reliant;  respect- 
ing themselves;  willing  to  accord  respect  to  others. 
They  lived  in  communities  where  there  was  no  great 
contrast  between  poverty  and  wealth,  unpoisoned 
by  the  discontents  which  envy  of  great  fortune  and 
great  luxury  often  brings.  They  could  discrim- 
inate and  decide  which  field  to  plant,  which  task  to 
do,  which  way  to  vote,  which  doctrine  to  believe, 
which  thing  to  live  contentedly  without;  and  they 
knew  how,  "having  done  all,  to  stand." 

Their  opportunities  were  limited;  their  occupa- 
tions often  humble.  How  silent  they  were  as  to 
their  own  aifairs,  as  to  the  stories  of  the  men  from 
whom  they  sprung!  How  little  in  detail  we  know 
about  them !  Yet  it  made  small  difference  with  the 
race  in  what  places  their  lines  fell.  Its  sons  had 
the  capacity  to  fill  places  of  importance  and  to  deal 
with  great  things  well  when  the  demand  came. 
Trace  the  lines  of  descent  of  our  great  men  and 
one  will  find  men  and  women, — strong,  simple, 
steadfast, — living,  it  may  be,  uneventful  lives,  but 
handing  down  sterling  qualities,  unalloyed,  from 
sire  to  son. 

From  such  a  stock  came  Mr.  Rice.  He  was  proud 
of  it.  He  studied  his  family  history  with  loving 
care.  In  the  summer  of  1892  he  visited  the  home  of 
his  maternal  ancestors  in  Whitney,  England.  He 
aided  in  placing  a  jubilee  window  in  the  church,  and 


BIOGRAPHICAL     SKETCH.  7 

at  the  Rector's  suggestion  a  tablet  to  his  memory 
has  been  placed  beneath.  He  gained  the  friendship 
of  a  charming  and  accomplished  lady, — Miss  Jane 
Dew,  daughter  of  the  Rector, — and  maintained  an 
interesting  correspondence  with  her  with  reference 
to  the  Whitneys.  From  information  thus  obtained, 
and  from  his  own  study  and  memory,  he  wrote  a 
sketch  of  the  family,  which  is  given  in  this  volume. 

Mr.  Rice's  mother  lived  to  the  great  age  of  ninety- 
four,  dying  in  1893.  She  was  a  woman  of  unusual 
force  of  character.  He  was  a  most  devoted  son. 
Indeed  his  deep  attachment  to  his  family  was  one 
of  his  most  striking  and  commendable  traits,  directly 
inherited  from  her.  He  attributed  much  of  such 
success  as  he  gained  to  her  influence.  Her  care  and 
foresight  made  it  possible  that  from  the  slender 
resources  of  a  minister's  household  he  received  his 
academic  and  college  education.  Her  pride  and 
ambition  impressed  the  boy  with  a  desire  to  succeed. 

When  a  little  over  two  years  old  he  was  taken  by 
his  father  in  the  family  chaise  from  Winchendon  to 
New  Gloucester,  the  little  fellow  sitting  on  a  stool 
at  his  father's  feet  and  his  mother  holding  the  baby 
sister  in  her  arms.  One  trunk  was  fastened  behind, 
another  swung  from  the  axle;  and  thus  the  family 
horse,  which  had  been  purchased  by  its  master  be- 
fore William's  birth  and  survived  in  faithful  service 
until  after  the  pastor's  death,  drew  the  household  for 
four  days  along  the  northern  roads,  until  from  a 


8  WILLIAM   WHITNEY   BICE. 

lofty  hill  they  looked  down  upon  the  village  of  New 
Gloucester,  Maine,  which  was  to  be  their  home  for 
seven  years.  The  father  in  his  preaching  in  various 
places,  while  looking  for  a  settlement,  had  much 
admired  the  village  and  pointed  it  out  with  great 
satisfaction  to  his  good  wife.  "Give  me  old 
Massachusetts,"  said  the  tired  mother.  "  Give  me 
Massachusetts,  too,"  lisped  the  little  son.  The  love 
for  his  native  State  grew  with  the  boy ;  and  the  days 
of  the  man  were  spent  within  her  limits  and  in  her 
service. 

In  New  Gloucester,  and  in  Buxton,  not  far 
removed,  Mr.  Rice's  boyhood  was  passed,  until  at 
the  age  of  thirteen  he  entered  the  Academy  at 
Gorham,  Maine.  There  he  got  his  first  systematic 
training.  He  had  attended  public  school  but  little, 
and  had  learned  all  that  he  knew  from  his  parents 
or  by  private  teaching,  and  had  developed  a  fond- 
ness for  reading  and  an  aptitude  for  reciting  well. 
He  attributed  this  largely  to  the  excellent  teaching 
of  Horatio  Woodman,  in  whose  private  school  he 
learned  the  art  of  reading  aloud  from  a  master  who 
had,  besides,  a  discriminating  taste  and  knew  how 
to  awaken  in  his  scholars  a  love  for  the  best  litera- 
ture. The  boy  had  an  excellent  memory.  These 
qualities  placed  him  in  a  conspicuous  place  at  the 
Academy;  and  he  left  it,  at  the  end  of  three  years, 
its  best  speaker  and  writer  and  its  best  scholar. 
He  had  a  capacity  for  leadership  among  his  fellows 


BIOGRAPHICAL     SKETCH.  9 

which  marked  his  course  all  through  his  life  at 
Bowdoin  College,  from  which  he  was  graduated  in 
1846.  One  of  his  friends,  the  Rev.  Egbert  C. 
Smyth,  D.D.,  of  Andover,  in  a  tribute  paid  to  his 
memory  before  the  American  Antiquarian  Society, 
April  23rd,  1896,  said:— 

"I  certainly  do  not  arise  with  any  thought  of 
adding  completeness  to  the  tribute  which  is  paid  by 
Mr.  Chase  (in  the  report  of  the  Council) ,  but  it  has 
occurred  to  me  while  I  have  been  sitting  here  that  I 
have  some  remembrances  of  Mr.  Bice  which  no  one 
else  may  be  in  possession  of,  and  think  I  may  be 
pardoned  for  referring  to  them  in  a  very  few  words. 

"  It  so  happened  that  I  entered  Bowdoin  College 
when  Mr.  Rice  was  beginning  his  junior  year.  We 
became  associated  in  one  of  the  secret  societies, 
which  were  then  somewhat  novel,  and  I  recall  with 
the  greatest  pleasure  the  interest  which  he  commu- 
nicated to  the  meetings  of  that  association,  both  in 
a  literary  and  social  way.  But  I  would  especially 
recall  the  very  prominent  part  which  he  took  in 
college  as  a  leader  in  what  one  may  call  its  public 
life.  The  college  was  then  divided  into  two  general 
societies,  as  was  still  the  custom  of  Harvard  and 
Yale  and  other  institutions  of  learning.  For  one,  I 
have  been  sorry  that  in  these  institutions  of  learning 
those  general  societies  have  quite  disappeared;  no 
doubt  there  is  some  good  reason  for  it,  but  they 
certainly  filled  a  part  in  college  life  and  in  training 
men  for  future  careers,  and  I  do  not  see  how  this 
could  have  been  better  accomplished. 

"  There  were  many  men  who  were  not  members  of 


10  WILLIAM   WHITNEY   RICE. 

any  club  or  any  secret  society,  but  seldom  did  a  stu- 
dent fail,  as  early  as  was  practicable,  to  unite  himself 
to  one  or  the  other  of  those  general  societies.  They 
were  literary  in  their  objects.  Those  who  were 
connected  with  them  will  remember  with  what  inter- 
est what  was  called  '  the  paper '  was  listened  to,  and 
how  wide-spread  was  the  desire  in  college  so  to 
write  our  English  language  that  those  who  had  the 
editorship  of  the  papers  would  be  pleased  to  admit 
the  contribution.  There  was  a  great  stimulus  in  it. 
And  beyond  that,  they  were  societies  for  discussion, 
and  if  any  man  in  college  had  the  capacity  latent 
within  him,  it  was  brought  out. 

"  Among  the  men  who  were  most  prominent  was 
our  late  associate,  Mr.  William  W.  Rice.  I  suppose, 
indeed  I  am  sure,  there  was  no  honor  which  the 
overseers  and  the  faculty  of  the  college  could 
bestow  upon  the  student  which  was  prized  so  highly 
as  to  be  elected  the  president  or  orator  of  one  of 
those  general  societies. 

"  Mr.  Rice,  without  any  rival,  was  chosen  orator, 
and  I  remember  well  how  he  fulfilled  his  part. 
There  was  always  a  dense  audience  when  the 
oration  and  poem  were  delivered,  and  an  interest 
was  called  forth  in  the  educated  community  some- 
thing like  what  is  now  excited  by  a  game  of  foot- 
ball, or  baseball,  or  a  race  in  boats. 

"  Mr.  Rice  was  a  leader  naturally  and  spontane- 
ously. He  had  a  capacity  for  public  affairs,  which  I 
cannot  but  think,  if  illness  had  not  fallen  upon  him, 
and  if  he  had  been,  I  may  venture  to  say  in  a  high 
and  honorable  sense,  a  little  more  ambitious  than  he 
really  was,  would  have  made  his  public  life  even 


BIOGRAPHICAL     SKETCH.  11 

more  illustrious  than  is  shown  in  the  record  which 
he  has  left  behind." 

While  in  college  he  taught  school  during  the 
vacations;  after  graduating  he  began  teaching  in 
Maine,  but  was  obliged  to  desist,  after  a  month's 
work,  because  of  a  serious  illness  from  which  he 
did  not  recover  for  a  year.  In  his  senior  year  he 
had  essayed  successfully  the  feat  of  moving  a  great 
stone  which  had  challenged  the  strength  of  the 
strongest  students,  and  the  strain  of  the  effort  had 
brought  on  a  trouble  in  his  back,  so  serious  that 
he  was  barely  able  to  deliver  his  graduating  oration. 
He  was  taken  from  his  school  to  his  father's  home 
in  Winchendon,  Mass.,  and  there,  before  his  own 
recovery,  his  father  died. 

In  the  fall  of  1847  he  had  so  far  recovered  that 
he  resumed  the  occupation  of  teaching  at  Leicester 
Academy,  where  he  remained  for  four  years.  The 
Academy  was  an  excellent  one,  attended  by  pupils 
of  either  sex.  Many  persons,  since  risen  to  places 
of  great  eminence  and  usefulness,  were  his  pupils. 
He  won  and  retained  their  affectionate  regard,  and 
his  days  there  were  very  happy.  There  he  met  as 
a  pupil  Miss  Cornelia  A.  Moen,  sister  of  Philip  L. 
Moen,  late  President  of  the  Washburn  &  Moen 
Manufacturing  Company  of  Worcester,  to  whom  he 
became  engaged  and  whom  he  married  in  1855,  as 
soon  as  his  professional  income  as  a  lawyer  enabled 
him  to  establish  his  own  household.  From  this 


12  WILLIAM   WHITNEY   RICE. 

union  his  children  were  born :  William  Whitney,  Jr., 
who  died  in  early  childhood;  and  Charles  Moen,  H. 
U.  1882,  who  was  admitted  to  the  bar  and  to  his 
father's  firm  and  who  is  in  active  practice  in  Wor- 
cester. She  died  in  1862. 

One  of  his  pupils,  at  Leicester,  for  whom  and 
for  whose  charming  wife  Mr.  Rice  always  retained 
a  most  affectionate  feeling,  has  described  the  acad- 
emy and  his  teacher  with  much  vividness.  The 
Honorable  John  E.  Russell  says: 

"Leicester  Academy  in  1849  was  an  important 
institution :  it  was  the  chief  (  seat  of  learning '  in  the 
county.  Its  pupils,  of  both  sexes,  came  from  all  sur- 
rounding towns.  The  head  master,  Josiah  Clark, 
was  an  eminent  scholar.  Its  annual  examination 
and  *  exhibition,'  held  in  the  'Orthodox  Meeting 
House,'  drew  crowds  of  people  who  not  only  filled 
the  pews  of  floor  and  galleries,  but  stood  at  the  open 
windows,  upon  wagons  drawn  up  against  the  side 
of  the  building. 

"It  was  a  prosperous  institution,  and  the  co-edu- 
cation of  young  men  and  maidens,  who  boarded  with 
the  excellent  families  of  the  town,  made  an  interest- 
ing and  sparkling  society. 

"I  was  sent  to  Leicester  under  the  charge  of 
Josiah  Clark,  where  I  remained  from  June  to  Nov- 
ember, 1849,  participating  in  the  annual  exhibition 
of  August  15th.  Great  and  eventful  day  !  Here  I 
found  Mr.  Rice.  He  was  very  young,  but  had  a 
gravity  and  repose  of  manner  uncommon  in  youth 
and  in  our  race ;  to  this  add  a  large  figure  and  a 


BIOGRAPHICAL     SKETCH.  13 

forehead  already  growing  bald,  and  you  have  an 
impressive  personality. 

"He  had  a  fine,  clear  complexion,  and  his  hair  was 
beautifully  curly.  His  speech  was  measured  and 
his  voice  sonorous.  He  taught  English  branches, 
and  I  was  pounding  at  the  classics,  so  I  was  in  only 
one  of  his  classes, — it  was  reading,  much  taught 
and  practiced  in  those  days.  He  loved  elocution  ; 
rejoiced  in  rolling  rhetorical  passages,  in  glowing 
poetry.  The  class  was  large  and  we  stood  and  read 
to  and  at  one  another,  largely  from  the  speeches 
which  Dr.  Johnson  wrote  for  the  Gentleman's  Mag- 
azine, and  attributed  to  the  statesmen  of  the  last 
century. 

"  Mr.  Rice  also  had  charge  of  the  '  speaking '  and 
compositions,  which  came  alternate  Wednesdays. 
These  exercises  required  rehearsals  and  consulta- 
tions, and  the  weighty  preparation  of  the  Exhibi- 
tion was  toward,  for  which  I  was  at  once  drafted 
and  found  myself  happily  in  continued  contact  with 
Mr.  Rice. 

"I  was  in  my  sixteenth  year.  I  think  he  was 
twenty-three.  He  was  very  affectionate  in  his  dis- 
position and  we  became  exceedingly  intimate.  I 
had  seen  a  good  deal  of  the  world,  as  we  both 
thought;  had  been  winters  in  New  York  and  could 
tell  him  of  the  theatres  and  other  metropolitan 
delights.  I  was  in  his  room,  which  was  at  the 
academy  building,  of  which  he  was  in  charge,  every 
evening.  We  read  poetry  together,  especially 
Byron  and  Macaulay's  essays.  He  drilled  me 
patiently  in  declamation. 

"  The  Exhibition,  largely  the  result  of  his  work, 


14  WILLIAM  WHITNEY   BICE. 

was  a  great  success.  There  was  a  play,  founded  on 
the  Canadian  Rebellion  of  1837,  in  which  Richard 
Olney  and  I  were  two  ' Patriot'  soldiers.  There 
was  a  Latin  colloquy  and  a  Greek  play,  and  decla- 
mation galore.  Hon.  Pliny  Merrick  gave  an 
address,  and  all  the  eminent  Esquires  of  Worcester, 
and  all  the  Clergy  were  present. 

"  There  was  a  row  of  girls  in  the  gallery  never  to 
be  forgotten.  The  one  you  mention  was  certainly 
up  to  her  reputation,  which  is  not  yet  forgotten; 
and  Cornelia  Moen,  with  whom  Rice  was  deeply  in 
love,  and  whom  he  married  as  soon  as  he  could, 
was  a  charming,  dignified  and  accomplished  girl. 
She  looked  like  her  father.  She  was  a  stately  fig- 
ure. She  spoke  French  like  her  native  tongue,  and 
was  fond  of  literature. 

"In  November,  1849,  I  went  back  to  Jones' 
school  at  Bridgeport,  but  kept  up  an  affectionate 
correspondence  with  Rice." 

While  at  Leicester  Mr.  Rice  took  part  in  his  first 
political  campaign,  and  cast  his  first  ballot,  in  1848, 
for  Martin  Yan  Buren  and  for  Charles  Francis 
Adams. 

He  left  Leicester  in  the  year  1851  and  began  the 
study  of  law  in  the  office  of  Emory  Washburn  and 
George  F.  Hoar.  After  three  years  spent  in  its 
study  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  and  entered  almost 
at  once  into  a  large  practice.  Worcester  was  then 
a  city  of  fifteen  thousand  inhabitants.  He  lived  to 
see  its  population  one  hundred  thousand.  Its  people 
were  largely  engaged  in  a  great  variety  of  manufac- 


BIOGRAPHICAL     SKETCH.  15 

tures.  Its  mechanics  were  skilled  workmen,  receiv- 
ing good  pay,  rising  often  from  the  shops  of  their 
employers  to  a  business  of  their  own.  Many  manu- 
facturing towns  and  thriving  villages  brought  their 
business  to  the  county  seat.  The  bar  had  eminent 
leaders.  With  them  Mr.  Rice  had  to  contend,  and 
among  them  to  make  a  place.  He  took  almost 
immediately  a  prominent  part  in  the  life  and 
activities  of  the  city.  While  still  a  law  student  he 
was  elected  to  his  first  office,  as  member  of  the 
School  Committee,  serving  as  its  Secretary  for  sev- 
eral years,  and  remaining  upon  the  board  until  his 
election  as  Mayor.  He  had  a  business  sense  which 
made  him  a  wise  adviser  of  business  men.  He  knew 
the  motives  which  influenced,  and  the  arguments 
which  appealed  to  his  fellows,  and  won  a  prominent 
place  as  an  advocate.  He  became  a  political  leader. 
His  strong  sympathies  were  for  freedom.  In  1854 
he  was  an  active  member  of  the  Worcester  County 
Kansas  League.  In  1855  he  records  in  his  diary 
the  sheltering  and  assisting  a  fugitive  slave  who, 
while  on  his  way  to  Canada  from  Boston,  saw  his 
master  and  an  officer  enter  the  front  of  the  railroad 
car  in  which  he  was  riding,  and  escaping  from  the 
other  door  fled  for  protection  and  help  to  Worces- 
ter. He  was  an  ardent  supporter  of  Henry  Wilson 
in  his  election  to  the  office  of  United  States  Senator 
in  that  year.  In  1855  he  was  appointed  Special 
Justice  of  the  Police  Court.  In  1858  he  was 


16  WILLIAM   WHITNEY   RICE. 

appointed  Judge  of  the  Court  of  Insolvency,  and 
held  that  office  until  its  duties  were  united  with 
those  of  Judge  of  Probate. 

In  the  year  1860  he  was  elected  Mayor  and  held 
that  office  for  one  year.  He  was  the  first  Repub- 
lican and  the  youngest  man  ever  elected  to  that 
office  in  Worcester.  During  his  administration, 
and  largely  through  his  powerful  aid,  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  Free  Public  Library,  upon  an  ade- 
quate scale,  was  secured. 

In  1868  he  was  elected  District  Attorney,  and 
filled  that  office  with  great  ability  until  his  resigna- 
tion in  1873. 

During  his  professional  career  he  was  associated 
in  partnership,  first  with  the  Honorable  Thomas  L. 
Kelson,  now  Judge  of  the  U.  S.  District  Court, 
later  with  the  Honorable  Francis  T.  Blackmer,  for 
many  years  District  Attorney  in  the  Middle  District 
of  Massachusetts,  and  last  with  Henry  W.  King, 
and  with  his  son,  Charles  Moen  Rice,  the  partner- 
ship continuing  until  the  father's  death. 

In  1875  he  went  to  the  Massachusetts  House  of 
Representatives,  in  order  to  lend  his  efficient  aid  to 
the  defeating  of  an  attempt  to  divide  Worcester 
County. 

September  28th,  1875,  he  married  Alice  M.  Miller, 
daughter  of  Henry  W.  and  Nancy  Merrick  Miller, 
who  survives  him. 

In  1876  his  brother-in-law,  Mr.  Hoar,  was  chosen 


BIOGRAPHICAL     SKETCH.  17 

United  States  Senator  at  the  close  of  his  fourth 
term  in  Congress,  and  Mr.  Rice  was  nominated  and 
elected  Representative  from  this  district.  He  held 
that  office  for  five  consecutive  terms.  During  these 
ten  years  his  services  were  of  great  value  to  his 
constituents,  not  only  upon  the  floor  of  the  House 
and  in  his  work  upon  committees,  but  also  in 
responding  to  the  numberless  demands  which  the 
business  and  personal  interests  of  such  a  constitu- 
ency constantly  present. 

In  his  speech  in  1880  before  the  Republican  Con- 
vention which  nominated  him,  he  thus  described  his 
district  : 

"This  district,  as  much  if  not  more  than  any  in 
the  land,  illustrates  the  effect  of  Republican  princi- 
ples. Its  school-houses  are  open  to  rich  and  poor 
alike.  Every  ballot  falls  as  free  and  unchecked  as 
the  leaves  from  the  trees  or  the  snow-flakes  from 
the  sky.  The  man  who  would  change  or  coerce  or 
conceal  one  of  those  evidences  of  a  freeman's  will, 
could  not  breathe  our  air  or  live  upon  our  soil.  Our 
financial  institutions,  safely  through  the  depression 
consequent  upon  the  war,  are  prosperous  and  attest 
the  wisdom  of  the  system  of  which  they  are  a  part. 
We  do  not  want  them  changed.  Our  manufactur- 
ing interests,  in  all  their  manifold  varieties,  are  pros- 
pering again  under  the  influence  of  Republican 
principles.  The  hum  of  every  spindle  is  the  music 
of  republicanism,  and  every  steam  cloud  curling 
above  our  cities  and  villages  is  a  spray  in  its  wreath. 
Our  farmers  are  rich  and  prosperous  in  their  con- 


18  WILLIAM   WHITNEY   RICE. 

tiguity  to  the  market  of  our  cities  and  villages.  We 
want  no  change ;  we  adhere  to  the  old  cause  and 
will  be  found  among  the  foremost  in  the  grand  rally 
about  to  be  made  for  the  integrity  of  the  govern- 
ment and  the  preservation  of  business  prosperity, 
for  the  equality  of  the  law,  and  the  protection  of  all 
in  the  enjoyment  of  their  legal  rights  ;  for  the  great 
principles  of  nationality,  liberty,  and  union." 

During  all  but  one  of  his  terms  of  service  the 
Democratic  party  was  in  the  majority  in  the  House 
of  Representatives  and  therefore  the  Republican 
members  were  unable  to  control  legislation  so  as  to 
carry  through  new  measures,  and  only  the  places  of 
the  minority  were  open  to  them  upon  the  commit- 
tees. Yet  Mr.  Rice  served  on  many  important 
committees  and  won  distinction  by  his  ability  and 
industry.  In  a  review  of  his  services  in  the  Boston 
Journal,  of  September  21st,  1882,  it  is  said: — 

"Representative  W.  "W.  Rice  was  appointed  a 
member  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs  and  on 
Indian  Affairs,  as  well  as  a  member  of  the  select 
committee  for  additional  accommodations  for  the 
Congressional  Library.  The  most  important  bill  of 
a  public  character  which  he  introduced  was  one  to 
terminate  the  provisions  of  the  treaty  of  1871  with 
Great  Britain  relative  to  the  fisheries.  His  list  of 
reports  shows  he  was  a  very  conscientious  member 
of  that  committee.  His  report  on  the  Congressional 
Library  Building  will  be  a  permanent  authority  on 
that  subject,  even  if  the  scheme  which  he  has  so 


BIOGRAPHICAL     SKETCH.  19 

much  at  heart  for  the  construction  of  a  new  library 
building  should  fail.  His  report  from  the  Commit- 
tee on  Foreign  Affairs  on  the  brig  General  Arm- 
strong, on  Fisheries,  on  St.  Johns  and  St.  Francis 
River  bridges,  and  on  the  Venezuela  Mixed  Com- 
mission leave  nothing  more  to  be  said  upon  these 
subjects.  They  are  exhaustive  treatises  on  every 
one  of  the  matters  to  which  they  relate  and  some  of 
them  will  have  a  permanent  value  as  historical 
works.  There  is  no  better  chapter  of  that  portion 
of  American  history  to  which  it  relates  than  Mr. 
Rice's  report  on  the  brig  General  Armstrong,  and 
he  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  the  bill  upon  which 
he  had  spent  so  much  labor  finally  become  a  law 
after  it  had  been  before  Congress  for  a  quarter  of  a 
century.  His  report  on  the  Fisheries  is  an  exhaus- 
tive treatise,  and  is  one  from  which  Congressional 
reports  will  be  compelled  to  draw  their  facts.  From 
the  Committee  on  Indian  Affairs  he  submitted  a 
report  on  the  traditions  of  the  Sioux  and  Dakota 
Indians.  His  principal  speeches  were  on  the  follow- 
ing subjects:  on  the  death  of  General  Burnside;  on 
the  appropriation  for  Cherokee  Indians;  on  Chinese 
Immigration ;  on  the  Congressional  Library ;  on 
the  brig  General  Armstrong  ;  on  the  international 
fishery  question ;  on  the  bill  to  protect  innocent  pur- 
chasers of  patented  articles ;  on  the  bill  granting  the 
right  of  way  through  the  Indian  Territory  to  the  St. 
Louis  and  San  Francisco  Railroad  Company;  on  the 
proper  reference  of  questions  relative  to  treaties; 
and  on  the  transfer  of  War  Department  records  to 
the  State  Department  Building.  Mr.  Rice  was 
constant  in  attendance  upon  the  investigation  of 


20  WILLIAM   WHITNEY   KICE. 

the  Foreign  Affairs  Committee  into  the  Chili-Peru 
business,  and  his  work  is  seen  in  the  exhaustive 
report  of  that  committee,  although  it  is  not  directly 
credited  to  him." 

Mr.  Rice  was  a  close  personal  friend  and  an 
ardent  admirer  of  Mr.  Blaine,  and  felt  most  keenly 
the  latter's  defeat  in  1884.  Had  Blaine  been  elected 
President,  Mr.  Rice's  friends  might  well  have  looked 
for  his  advancement  to  some  position  of  still  greater 
importance  and  responsibility,  where  his  capacities 
would  have  won  him  a  wider  fame. 

At  the  close  of  his  fifth  term  he  was  a  candidate 
for  re-election,  and,  after  a  close  and  exciting 
contest,  he  was  nominated  by  the  Republican  Con- 
vention by  a  majority  of  one  vote.  The  feeling 
aroused  in  the  preliminary  struggle  was  most  in- 
tense. His  desire  for  a  re-nomination  was  not 
personal,  but  he  consented  to  stand  as  a  candidate 
upon  the  imperative  demand  of  many  of  the  leaders 
of  his  party.  Unfortunately  party  differences  among 
Republicans  were  not  laid  aside  when  the  result  of 
the  convention  was  ascertained.  The  District  was 
carried  by  the  Democrats,  and  his  former  pupil,  the 
Honorable  John  E.  Russell,  was  elected  for  a  single 
term. 

This  ended  Mr.  Rice's  public  career,  but  not  his 
active  and  constant  interest  in  public  matters,  and 
in  the  welfare  of  the  community  in  which  he  lived. 

He  returned  to  Worcester  and  resumed  the  active 


BIOGRAPHICAL     SKETCH.  21 

practice  of  his  profession.  He  became  again  the 
wise  adviser  of  our  business  men.  He  took  his 
place  on  the  parish  committee  of  the  Unitarian 
Church — the  Church  of  the  Unity — to  which  he  was 
attached,  and  gave  liberally  to  its  support.  His 
eulogy  at  the  occasion  of  presenting  to  the  Court 
the  resolutions  of  the  bar  upon  the  death  of  the 
son  of  his  former  partner,  is  remembered  as  most 
affectionate  and  tender.  He  was  a  most  public- 
spirited  citizen.  No  feeling  of  personal  regret  or 
of  personal  disappointment  tinged  his  speech  or 
action,  or  withheld  his  ready  support  to  any  good 
enterprise. 

He  received  the  degree  of  LL.D.  from  his  Col- 
lege in  1886,  and  served  as  one  of  its  overseers. 
He  was  a  member  of  the  American  Antiquarian 
Society,  a  Trustee  of  Leicester  Academy,  of  the 
Worcester  Polytechnic  Institute,  and  of  Clark 
University.  Until  his  death  he  was  the  Solicitor 
and  a  Director  of  the  City  National  Bank. 

In  1884  he  delivered  the  address  at  the  centen- 
nial of  Leicester  Academy. 

In  1892,  with  his  wife  and  with  Senator  and  Mrs. 
Hoar,  he  visited  Europe,  spending  his  time  princi- 
pally in  England.  It  seems  strange,  wide  as  was 
his  reading  and  deep  as  was  his  interest  in  English 
history,  that  he  should  not  have  gone  abroad  many 
years  before ;  but  he  was  a  poor  sailor  and  had  a 
great  dread  of  the  effects  of  a  sea  voyage. 


22  WILLIAM   WHITNEY   RICE. 

His  mother  had  been  an  invalid  for  many  years, 
and  his  devotion  to  her,  and  his  wife's  devoted  care 
of  her  own  parents,  made  them  reluctant  to  under- 
take a  long  absence,  until  his  own  health  seemed  to 
require  it.  The  voyage  and  the  journey  were  a 
great  delight  to  him,  and  he  returned  much  im- 
proved in  health.  His  vigor,  however,  failed,  and 
he  was  compelled  to  give  up  hard  work. 

He  then  passed  each  summer  upon  the  farm  in 
Winchendon,  which  his  mother  had  owned,  and 
where  his  brother,  Charles  J.  Rice,  formerly  County 
Commissioner,  had  lived.  It  was  the  town  where 
his  father  had  died,  the  home  of  his  mother's  people; 
and  he  loved  it. 

His  last  years  were  exceedingly  pleasant.  Sur- 
rounded by  a  devoted  family  and  affectionate  friends, 
rallying  from  one  severe  and  alarming  illness,  he 
saw  his  end  draw  near  with  unfaltering  courage 
and  calmness.  Had  he  lived  six  days  longer,  he 
would  have  attained  his  threescore  years  and  ten. 

His  death  was  attended  with  many  marks  of  pub- 
lic esteem:  from  the  city,  over  whose  destinies  he 
had  presided  in  his  youth,  and  where  he  had  so  long 
dwelt,  conspicuous  among  its  distinguished  citizens ; 
from  the  business  institutions,  and  institutions  of 
learning,  to  which  he  had  given  such  efficient  ser- 
vice ;  from  the  Bar,  to  which  he  had  been  so  long 
an  honor  and  an  example ;  from  many  friends,  dis- 
tinguished and  humble,  whose  grief  was  deep  and 


BIOGRAPHICAL     SKETCH.  23 

sincere.  Perhaps  no  more  fitting  tribute  to  his 
memory  could  be  chosen  than  the  estimate  which 
Senator  Hoar  gave  of  him  to  the  daily  press,  when 
the  news  of  his  death  was  made  public.  It  is  as 
follows : 

SENATOR  HOAR'S  ESTIMATE, 

This  has  been  a  sorrowful  week  for  Massachusetts. 
Ex-Gov.  Robinson,  the  eloquent  orator,  the  wise 
counsellor,  the  champion  who  defended  the  honor  of 
the  Commonwealth  in  time  of  sorest  need,  has  been 
stricken  down  while  still  in  the  prime  of  his  useful 
and  honored  life.  The  sad  news  comes  this  morn- 
ing, that  our  beloved  Governor,  on  whose  eloquent 
lips  his  fellow-citizens  have  so  often  hung  delighted, 
and  for  whom  they  looked  to  a  long  career  of  use- 
fulness and  distinction,  is  stricken  by  the  fatal 
arrow.  And  now  our  own  city  has  to  mourn  the 
loss  of  her  veteran  servant,  whose  figure  has  been 
so  familiar  to  our  streets  for  nearly  fifty  years;  the 
story  of  whose  life  is  the  story  of  her  own  life 
during  her  growth  from  the  thriving  country  village 
to  the  great,  opulent  and  powerful  city ;  whom  she 
has  honored  in  every  variety  of  public  service  and 
station, — Mayor,  Representative,  Judge,  District 
Attorney,  Congressman,— he  has  given  up  his  life, 
full  of  years  and  honors,  and  the  places  which  have 
so  long  known  him  shall  know  him  no  more. 

I  have  been  asked  to  give  my  estimate  of  the 


24  WILLIAM   WHITNEY   RICE. 

character  of  Mr.  Rice.  His  public  character,  the 
political  life  which  began  with  the  foundation  of  the 
Free  Soil  party  in  1848,  and  which,  so  far  as  his 
powerful  influence  went,  ended  only  with  his  life 
itself,  is  familiar  to  our  own  community  and  will  be 
better  described  by  others.  But  I  have  known  him 
with  an  intimate  friendship  from  a  time  before  his 
removal  from  Leicester,  where  he  was  a  teacher, 
to  Worcester.  We  were  born  in  the  same  year. 
Although  slightly  my  elder,  he  pursued  his  profes- 
sional studies  in  my  office,  and  when  he  completed 
them,  in  1854,  opened  an  office  next  to  mine.  Our 
places  of  business,  with  an  interval  of  perhaps  one 
year,  have  been  in  the  same  building,  upon  the  same 
floor,  and  have  adjoined  each  other. 

I  have  been  his  associate  and  his  antagonist  in 
many  important  trials.  He  succeeded  me  as  Repre- 
sentative of  this  District  in  Congress.  We  made  a 
journey  together  to  Europe.  We  were  associated 
together  for  many  years  in  the  administration  of  the 
Worcester  Polytechnic  Institute,  of  Clark  Univer- 
sity and  in  membership  of  the  Antiquarian  Society. 
We  belonged  to  the  same  Church.  Our  wives  are 
sisters  and  our  children  have  been  friends.  We 
held  the  same  political  opinions.  So  I  think  that  if 
I  ever  have  known  any  man  through  and  through, 
in  and  out,  in  public  and  in  private,  I  knew  Mr. 
Rice,  and  I  am  glad  to  put  my  estimate  of  him 
upon  record. 


BIOGRAPHICAL     SKETCH.  25 

He  was  as  absolutely  perfect  as  any  man  I  ever 
knew  in  the  domestic  relations;  as  a  son,  a  father,  a 
brother  and  a  husband.  He  loved  his  parents,  his 
brothers  and  his  sisters,  his  wife  and  his  children 
with  an  absolute,  considerate,  self-sacrificing  affec- 
tion, which  I  think  left  them  nothing  to  desire,  and 
which  I  think  in  the  lot  of  humanity  could  not  be 
surpassed.  I  do  not  think  that  it  ever  occurred  to 
him  to  think  of  his  own  interests  in  his  desire  to 
serve  them. 

He  was  a  model  of  the  professional  character. 
He  was  an  eminent  advocate,  largely  employed  in 
important  cases.  He  was  always  courteous  to  his 
antagonists,  faithful  to  his  clients  and  respectful  to 
the  court.  He  was  a  sound  lawyer  and  a  skilled 
manager  of  causes  before  juries.  He  was  in  the 
very  first  rank  of  the  very  able  Bar  of  Worcester 
County,  almost  from  the  time  he  became  a  member 
of  it  until  his  death.  Any  client  was  safe  in  his 
hands,  no  matter  who  might  be  retained  on  the 
other  side.  There  was  no  danger  that  he  would 
lose  any  case  that  he  ought  to  win,  either  before  the 
jury  or  before  the  full  bench.  But  in  this  depart- 
ment of  professional  service  he  had  a  good  many 
competitors,  some  of  whom  undoubtedly  achieved  a 
reputation  equal  to  his,  and  in  a  few  instances  a 
reputation  superior  to  his.  But  he  had,  in  my 
judgment,  no  equal  among  the  members  of  the 
Worcester  County  Bar  in  one  very  important 


26  WILLIAM   WHITNEY   RICE. 

department  of  the  profession, — he  was  the  most 
sagacious  adviser  I  have  ever  known  of  business 
men  who  were  in  difficulties,  or  who  had  important 
controversies  which  required  the  advice  of  a  coun- 
sellor who  knew  what  was  best  to  be  done  in  the 
conduct  of  business,  and  at  the  same  time  competent 
to  be  trusted  as  adviser  as  to  their  legal  rights. 

I  have  known  very  intimately  all  the  great  law- 
yers of  my  time  in  the  County  of  Worcester  and 
many  of  those  in  other  parts  of  the  Commonwealth. 
It  has  probably  been  my  fortune  to  be  on  intimate 
relations  with  as  many  of  the  famous  advocates  of 
the  United  States  as  any  man  now  alive.  One 
Attorney-General  was  my  brother,  one  was  my 
partner,  and  a  third  was  a  near  kinsman.  I  can 
only  repeat  what  I  have  said  many  times,  that  in 
the  quality  and  capacity  I  have  just  mentioned,  I 
never  knew  a  man  that  approached  Mr.  Rice. 

He  was  a  man  of  absolute  professional  integrity, 
straightforward,  direct,  simple  and  absolutely  honor- 
able in  his  methods.  He  was  one  of  the  assignees 
of  the  Quinsigamond  Manufacturing  Company  at 
the  time  of  its  failure.  I  was  employed  by  the 
assignees  as  the  counsel  and  knew  all  about  the 
settlement  with  the  creditors.  The  business  was 
continued  a  little  while  by  Mr.  Rice,  and  then  a  set- 
tlement was  made  and  a  large  percentage  of  the 
debts  paid.  I  think  there  were  complicated  ques- 
tions of  law  enough  in  that  case  alone  to  have 


BIOGRAPHICAL     SKETCH.  27 

amply  supported  the  entire  Worcester  Bar  for  three 
years. 

He  was  a  public-spirited  citizen.  He  was  always 
ready  to  contribute  largely  to  all  good  causes.  He 
was  always  ready  to  do  his  share  of  work  in  the 
administration  of  public  institutions.  The  Poly- 
technic Institute  owes  very  much  to  his  constant 
and  unfailing  interest.  He  was  one  of  the  most 
important  members  of  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the 
Clark  University;  was  a  Director  and  Solicitor  for 
many  years  of  the  City  Bank,  during  a  term  of 
years  covering  several  periods  of  great  anxiety  in 
that  institution.  He  was  Chairman  of  the  Parish 
Committee  of  the  Church  of  the  Unity,  and  always 
an  influential  member  there.  He  always  attended 
the  meetings  of  the  parish  until  the  failure  of  his 
health. 

I  do  not  think  that  the  Worcester  District  has 
ever  had  a  member  of  the  National  House  of  Eepre- 
sentatives  who  was  more  popular  with  his  associ- 
ates. Mr.  Rice  spoke  but  seldom.  I  believe  that 
he  had  but  one  speech  printed  in  pamphlet  form 
during  his  whole  ten  years  of  service,  though  I  may 
be  mistaken  in  this  regard.  But  he  understood  our 
foreign  relations,  and  during  his  term  of  service  on 
that  committee,  was  very  influential  in  shaping  the 
policy  of  the  administration  in  regard  to  the  fish- 
eries. The  Gloucester  fishing  industry  looked  to 
him  as  their  champion  and  defender  in  the  House. 


28  WILLIAM   WHIT1STEY  EICE. 

He  understood  thoroughly  the  question  of  the 
tariff  and  the  business  interests  of  his  constituents. 
He  was  a  popular  speaker  at  public  meetings,  especi- 
ally among  the  people  of  Maine,  where  they  have 
always  demanded  a  very  high  order  of  what  is  called 
"stump  oratory."  His  term  of  administration  as 
Mayor  was  singularly  successful  and  satisfactory. 
He  would  doubtless  have  been  continued  in  that 
position  had  he  been  willing. 

There  is  scarcely  an  interest  or  an  institution  in 
our  diversified  city  life  in  which  he  will  not  be 
missed  so  long  as  men  are  living  that  remember 
him.  There  was  never  a  better  bank  director,  never 
a  better  guardian  or  trustee  or  manager  of  the  affairs 
of  widows  or  orphans,  never  a  more  faithful  coun- 
sellor to  men  in  difficulty,  never  a  better  son,  father 
or  husband.  He  bore  the  agony  of  a  fatal  sickness, 
lasting  with  brief  intermissions  of  health,  for  more 
than  three  years,  with  an  unfailing  courage.  Dur- 
ing the  whole  of  it,  he  thought  only  of  the  distress 
it  would  cause  to  his  household,  and  never,  so  far  as 
I  could  see,  to  himself. 

No  community  is  so  rich  in  men  having  these 
qualities  that  it  can  afford  to  spare  a  man  like  him. 
There  is  no  man  left,  however  large  his  influence, 
however  wide  his  fame,  however  brilliant  his  suc- 
cess, however  great  his  mental  capacity,  however 
spotless  his  moral  worth,  who  might  not  well  be 
content,  and  whose  children  might  not  be  well  con- 


BIOGRAPHICAL     SKETCH.  29 

tent,  if,  when  the  story  of  his  life  comes  to  be 
summed  up,  the  scroll  shall  bear  as  honorable  a 
record  as  that  of  WILLIAM  W.  EICE. 


The  following  notice  from  the  full  heart  of  a 
close  friend,  who  has  since  joined  the  mighty  host 
of  those  who  have  "gone  before,"  may  well  be 
added  as  a  closing  tribute:  — 

IN   MEMOKIAM, 

In  the  death  of  Hon.  "W.  "W.  Rice  the  whole  city 
may  well  mourn  the  loss  of  one  of  its  ablest  and 
strongest  men.  Of  eminent  ability  and  strong  per- 
sonal convictions,  he  possessed  a  largeness  of  heart 
that  embraced  within  it  all  classes  of  his  fellow- 
men.  To  his  intimate  friends  his  death  brings  almost 
an  irreparable  loss.  Hours  spent  with  him  in  social 
and  familiar  intercourse  were  full  of  interest,  and 
now  more  than  ever  bring  up  sweetest  recollections. 
Of  extended  reading  and  rare  conversational  pow- 
ers, there  was  a  personal  magnetism  about  him  that 
drew  one  irresistibly  towards  him,  and  made  his 
words  soothe  the  irritated,  inspire  new  courage 
when  despondent,  and  always  gave  one  a  higher 
faith  in  life  and  its  possibilities;  or,  quoting  from 
one  of  his  addresses,  his  words  were  "like  pebbles 
dropped  into  the  lake,  which  sink  out  of  sight,  but 
the  ripples  they  stir  touch  the  farthest  shore."  His 
life  was  full  of  goodness,  of  charities  that  let  not 
the  left  hand  know  what  the  right  hand  doeth. 
With  an  almost  reverential  attitude  towards  all 


30  WILLIAM   WHITNEY   RICE. 

things  good  and  beautiful,  he  seemed  to  attain  an 
inexpressible  tenderness  which  led  to  a  rest  and 
peace  in  living  which  was  permanent,  so  that  his 
joy  in  living  was  great;  for  with  him,  as  Hawthorne 
says,  "  Happiness  had  no  succession  of  events,  be- 
cause it  was  a  part  of  eternity."  In  hours  of  sorrow 
his  words  were  almost  a  benediction,  and  the  simple 
honesty  and  beauty  of  his  life  will  always  be  hal- 
lowed memory. 


THE  WHITNEY  NARRATIVE. 


fc 

^- 

— 

= 


a: 


I. 

VISIT  TO  WHITNEY-ON-THE-WYE, 

It  is  natural  for  men  to  be  interested  in  their 
antecedents.  We  love  to  search  for  the  places  of 
our  ancestors  and  to  trace  out  as  much  as  we  can  of 
their  associations  and  lives. 

Prompted  by  this  natural  tendency,  in  the  month 
of  June,  1892,  I  took  the  train,  accompanied  by  my 
wife,  from  Hereford  to  the  parish  of  Whitney-on- 
the-Wye,  seventeen  miles  distant,  to  see  if  perchance 
I  could  learn  anything  there  of  our  ancestors. 

There  are  none  there  now  bearing  the  name  of 
Whitney;  but  there  are  the  manors  of  Whitney 
and  of  Clifford,  formerly  owned  by  the  Whitney 
family,  and  not  yet  wholly  alienated. 

Whitney  is  a  section  of  beautiful  country,  with  an 
old  stone  church,  stone  cottage  for  the  rector,  and 
a  somewhat  modern  manor-house,  and  a  few  other 
scattered  houses,  but  no  public  house.  We  could 
get  no  public  carriage  for  our  conveyance. 

We  found  that  we  had  an  hour  and  a  half  before 
the  departure  of  the  next  train  for  London,  and  we 
resolved  to  make  the  most  of  that  time,  with  such 
directions  as  we  could  get  from  the  station  master, 


36  WILLIAM   WHITNEY   RICE. 

who  was  very  accommodating  and  intelligent.  He 
referred  us  to  the  rector,  Rev.  Henry  Dew,  as  a 
gentleman  who  would  receive  us  hospitably,  and 
furnish  us  all  the  information  that  there  was  to  be 
had  on  the  subject  of  our  inquiries. 

From  the  station  the  outlook  over  the  surround- 
ing country  embraced  in  the  manors  of  Whitney 
and  Clifford,  was  as  lovely  as  anything  we  had  seen 
in  England.  The  Wye  flowed  through  the  valley  a 
few  rods  below  the  station,  while  the  broad  fields 
and  forests  stretched  away  in  the  distance  toward 
the  Welch  mountains,  which  were  the  principal  fea- 
tures in  the  landscape. 

The  rectory  was  quarter  or  half  a  mile  distant. 
Going  from  the  station  we  passed  by  the  pretty  little 
church.  We  entered  the  churchyard  and  searched 
for  Whitney  memorials.  We  found  none,  because, 
as  we  afterward  learned,  sometime  in  the  middle  of 
the  eighteenth  century  the  Wye,  in  a  freshet,  swept 
away  the  old  castle,  the  old  church,  and  the  monu- 
ments and  graves  of  the  Whitneys  from  the  time 
that  they  settled  in  that  place.  The  new  church 
contains  many  of  the  old  granite  stones  which  were 
left  from  the  ruins  of  the  old  church.  The  old  font, 
hollowed  from  a  solid  granite  block,  which  was  there 
before  the  freshet,  probably  from  the  original  build- 
ing of  the  church,  and  in  which  the  Whitney  infants 
have  been  baptized  probably  from  the  eleventh  or 
twelfth  century,  was  also  recovered  from  the  ruins 


THE   WHITNEY  NARRATIVE.  37 

and  placed  in  the  new  church,  where  it  still  stands. 
I  have  a  photograph  of  that  font,  taken  since  I 
was  there,  which  I  shall  be  happy  to  show  to  any  of 
the  modern  members  of  the  family. 

Leaving  the  church,  we  went  up  a  hill,  through  a 
lane  bordered  by  trees,  to  the  rectory,  where  we 
were  first  saluted  by  the  vigorous  barking  of  a  black 
dog.  A  young  lady,  whom  we  afterward  ascer- 
tained to  be  a  daughter  of  the  rector,  soon  made  her 
appearance.  She  went  to  seek  her  father,  who  soon 
came  and  took  us  to  the  garden  in  the  front  of  the 
house,  where  he  had  been  working  among  his 
flowers. 

He  was  a  straight,  dignified  English  clergyman, 
who,  when  he  learned  who  we  were  and  what  we 
desired,  at  once  gave  us  a  cordial  and  hospitable 
welcome.  He  invited  us  into  the  house,  where 
another  daughter,  Miss  Jane,  joined  us.  We  pro- 
longed our  call  there  with  him  and  his  daughter  as 
long  as  we  could  remain.  Out  of  that  call  sprang 
a  most  interesting  correspondence  with  Miss  Dew, 
the  daughter,  from  which  I  have  derived  much  of 
the  information  made  use  of  in  the  following  record. 
I  presume  that  I  have  more  than  twenty  letters  from 
her,  generally  very  long  and  full  of  interesting 
details.  I  think  she  must  have  spent  a  great  deal 
of  her  time  in  looking  up  ancient  records  to  find 
material  for  her  letters  to  me.  I  shall  always  enter- 
tain sincere  friendship  and  respect  for  the  Rev. 


38  WILLIAM   WHITNEY   RICE. 

Henry  Dew,  and  his  accomplished  daughter,  Miss 
Jane. 

Rev.  Henry  Dew  was  a  brother  of  Sir  Tompkyns 
Dew,  the  last  owner  of  the  estate.  He  was  a 
descendant  of  the  Whitneys  through  some  one  of 
the  female  members  of  the  family,  to  whom  the  estate 
came  by  failure  of  the  male  line.  Sir  Tompkyns' 
little  daughter,  at  the  time  of  our  visit  a  child  about 
five  years  old,  represents  the  broad  acres  of  the 
estates  of  Whitney  and  Clifford,  now,  I  regret  to 
say,  so  heavily  mortgaged  that  it  seems  quite  possi- 
ble, if  not  probable,  that  by  the  foreclosure  of  the 
mortgages  they  will  soon  pass  into  unknown  and 
alien  ownership.  Miss  Dew  informs  me  that  the 
payment  of  sixty  thousand  dollars  would  probably 
postpone  foreclosure,  and  three  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  dollars  would  suffice  for  the  purchase  of 
the  entire  estate. 

I  believe  that  the  rector's  tenure  of  the  living 
cannot  be  terminated  during  his  life;  but  at  his 
death  the  pretty  rectory,  where  he  has  lived  more 
than  fifty  years  and  has  much  beautified,  will  pass 
to  strangers  with  the  rest  of  the  estate,  and  thus  the 
last  Whitney  traces  be  obliterated  from  the  spot 
with  which  they  have  been  so  long  connected. 


OLD    FONT, 

IN 
PARISH     CHURCH,    AVHITNEY-OX-WYE. 


H. 

WHITNEYS  OF  WHITNEY-ON-THE-WYE, 

"Whitney,  spelled  in  different  ways,  has  been  the 
name  of  a  parish  from  very  early  days.  It  prob- 
ably derives  its  name  from  two  words  signifying 
"  white  water,"  the  first,  huit,  pronounced  whete, 
and  the  second,  ey,  water,  so  that  the  word 
Whitney  means  white  water,  and  that  parish  takes 
its  name  from  the  river  Wye,  which  pours  through 
it  from  the  Welch  mountains,  a  noisy,  uncontrol- 
lable stream,  the  water  of  which  is  characterized 
by  whiteness  from  the  foam  and  disturbance  caused 
by  its  restless  passage. 

Before  the  time  of  William  the  Conqueror  the 
name  of  Whitney  was  borne  by  this  tract  of  land; 
and  the  ancient  chronicles  say  that  during  the  reign 
of  Edward  the  Confessor  it  was  the  property  of  one 
Alward,  by  his  name,  I  should  suppose,  a  Saxon. 

Among  the  adventurers  who  flocked  to  the  stand- 
ard of  William  the  Norman,  was  one  of  that  restless 
race  which  made  themselves  so  distinguished  all 
over  Europe  in  those  early  days  as  sea-rovers,  com- 
ing from  the  North  in  their  boats  and  plundering 
wherever  they  went.  His  name  is  variously  written 
in  the  early  chronicles  as  Toustain,  Toustan,  Tostan, 


40  WILLIAM   WHITNEY   RICK. 

Tosti,  Tostig,  and  Turstin.  In  Domesday  Book  it 
is  written  Torstinus,  and  since,  in  the  early  records, 
Turstin.  This  man  seems  to  have  been  an  eminent 
fighter  among  those  early  marauders,  and  there  is 
some  evidence  that  he  was  the  standard-bearer  of 
William  in  the  great  battle  of  Hastings.  At  any 
rate  he  was  considered  by  that  chief  robber  as 
worthy  of  great  reward  for  his  services  in  conquer- 
ing the  English ;  and  in  Domesday  Book  it  appears 
that  he  had  granted  him  by  William  some  nine 
estates  in  different  counties,  of  which  the  little 
parish  of  Whitney,  containing  about  fifteen  hundred 
acres,  was  one. 

This  parish  is  on  the  southern  border  of  Wales, 
and  was  exposed  to  the  incursions  of  those  hardy 
descendants  of  the  ancient  Britons,  who  so  long 
resisted  conquest  when  all  the  rest  of  England  had 
fallen.  William  seems  to  have  selected  some  of  his 
bravest  soldiers  for  settlement  in  those  frontier 
regions,  to  resist  the  incursions  of  the  Welch.  Here 
Turstin,  son  of  Rolf,  seems  to  have  found  a  more 
peaceful  life  than  he  could  have  enjoyed  while  roam- 
ing the  seas  and  plundering  every  country  he  could 
reach.  Here  a  castle  was  built  sometime  in  the 
latter  half  of  the  eleventh  century.  The  ruins  of 
this  castle  may  still  be  seen  on  the  high  land  in  the 
central  part  of  the  estate. 

He  married  a  wife  named  Agnes  Maleberge,  also 
of  Norman  descent,  who  seems  to  have  owned  in 


THE    WHITNEY   NARRATIVE.  41 

her  own  right  other  land  in  the  vicinity,  and  there 
at  last  he  found  a  peaceful  death. 

He  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Eustacius  (called 
miles,  soldier  or  knight),  who  took  the  name  of 
Eustacius,  Lord  of  Whitney,  and  was  thus,  so  far 
as  I  can  learn,  the  first  to  bear  the  name  of  Whitney 
as  a  surname.  He  and  his  mother,  Agnes,  widow  of 
Turstin,  gave  to  the  Church  of  St.  Peter  in  Glouces- 
ter a  hide  of  land  (one  hundred  and  fifty  acres),  for 
which  they  received  due  mention  in  the  archives  of 
the  elegant  cathedral  in  that  city. 

Eustacius  de  Whitney  was  succeeded  by  a  long 
line  of  descendants,  in  which  the  names  of  Eustacius 
and  Robert  were  the  most  frequent  in  the  earlier 
days,  after  which  came  the  more  modern  names  of 
James,  Thomas,  John,  Lords  of  Whitney,  who  were 
sheriffs  of  Herefordshire  and  sometimes  members 
of  Parliament,  when  such  bodies  existed.  These 
men  were  royalists,  as  in  duty  bound,  and  became 
widely  connected  by  intermarriage  with  other  fami- 
lies in  the  vicinity  and  even  at  a  distance.  Of 
course  the  landed  property  of  the  family,  in  the 
process  of  time,  became  somewhat  broken  up,  al- 
though that  of  the  old  grant,  the  castle,  and  the 
surrounding  land,  seems  to  have  remained  undi- 
vided in  the  family,  by  a  rule  of  descent  not  fully 
understood  by  me,  and  brought  down  perhaps  to 
the  present  time. 

In  the  earlier  days  the  Lords  of  Whitney  fought 


42  WILLIAM    WHITNEY   BICE. 

against  the  Welch  at  home  or  followed  the  king 
when  summoned  by  him  to  foreign  wars.  In  the 
latter  class  of  service  we  find  the  tradition  of  the 
Lord  of  Whitney,  Sir  Randolph  de  Whitney,  accom- 
panying Richard  CoBur  de  Lion  to  Palestine,  where 
he  seems  to  have  derived  the  crest  of  the  family 
which  has  remained  in  use  to  the  present  time. 
This  crest  shows  the  head  of  a  bull,  and  the  follow- 
ing legend  is  found  explanatory  of  it,  which  may  be 
received  by  those  who  please  to  believe  it  as  real 
rather  than  apochryphal : 

"  Sir  Randolph  de  Whitney,  grandson  of  Eusta- 
cius  the  founder  of  the  name,  son  of  old  Torstinus, 
accompanied  Richard  Coeur  de  Lion  to  the  wars  of 
the  Crusades,  and  was  greatly  distinguished  by  his 
personal  strength  and  courage.  On  one  occasion, 
being  sent  by  Richard  on  a  mission,  the  brother  of 
Saladin,  with  two  Saracens  in  his  company,  followed 
him,  and  going  around  a  small  hill,  suddenly  made  a 
vigorous  attack  on  the  English  knight.  De  Whit- 
ney defended  himself  with  the  greatest  valor,  but 
his  assailants  were  gaining  upon  him  when  a  furious 
bull,  feeding  near  the  scene  of  the  conflict,  was 
attracted  by  the  red  dress  of  the  Saracens  and 
made  so  fierce  an  attack  upon  them  that  the  two  of 
the  lesser  rank  were  driven  from  their  intended 
prey  and  sought  safety  in  flight.  Sir  Randolph 
soon  succeeded  in  wounding  his  remaining  assail- 
ant, whom  he  left  for  dead,  and  then  overtaking  the 
two  other  Saracens,  despatched  them  and  proceeded 
on  his  mission.  Sir  Randolph  attributed  his  escape 


THE   WHITNEY   NARRATIVE.  43 

to  the  especial  interposition  of  the  Virgin.  On  his 
return  to  England  he  erected  a  chapel  to  the  Vir- 
gin, the  walls  of  which  remain  to  this  day,  adjoining 
the  grounds  of  the  ancient  family  mansion,  and  he 
adopted  the  bull's  head  in  his  family  crest  at  the 
head  of  a  cross,  beneath  which  was  written  the 
family  motto,  Magnanimiter  w^ucem  sustine" 

However  much  truth  or  fiction  there  may  be  in 
the  above  tradition,  certain  it  is  that  the  Whitney s 
continued  to  live  on  the  estate  of  their  ancestor 
Torstinus  for  many  hundred  years.  Whitney  castle 
was  one  in  a  line  of  fortifications  built  under  the 
order  of  the  early  kings  for  protection  against  the 
unconquerable  Welch.  There  the  Whitney  s  lived 
and  fought,  married  and  greatly  multiplied,  through 
all  the  centuries,  always  loyal  to  the  King  and  the 
Church.  More  than  one  of  them  lost  their  lives  in 
the  discharge  of  their  duty. 

In  the  reign  of  Henry  IV.,  I  find  that  the  king 
granted  to  Sir  Robert,  Lord  of  Whitney,  the 
adjoining  manor  and  castle  of  Clifford. 

TRANSLATION  OF  PATENT  ROLL  5.     HENRY  IV. 
1st  Part,  No.  372,  Membrane  2. 

"  THE  KING  to  all  whom  &c.  greeting- 
Know  ye  that  since  the  father  of  Robert  Whiteney, 
Esquire,  and  his  uncle  and  a  great  part  of  his  rela- 
tions have  been  killed  in  our  service  at  the  capture 
of  Edmund  Mortemer,  and  his  property  has  been 
burned  and  destroyed  by  our  rebels  of  Wales  so 


44  WILLIAM   WHITNEY   RICE. 

that  the  said  Robert  has  not  any  castle  or  fort- 
ress where  he  can  tarry  to  resist  and  punish  our 
aforesaid  rebels  as  we  have  learned  We,  of  our 
special  grace,  have  granted  to  the  said  Robert  the 
Castle  of  Clifford  and  the  lordships  of  Clifford  and 
Glasbury  together  with  all  the  lands,  tenements, 
rents,  services,  fees,  advowsons,  royalties,  liberties, 
franchises,  jurisdictions,  escheats,  fines,  redemp- 
tions and  other  commodities  whatsoever  to  the  said 
castle  and  lordships  in  any  manner  belonging  and 
also  full  punishment  and  execution  of  all  rebels  who 
are  or  shall  be  of  or  in  the  above  said  lordships  with 
all  forfeitures  and  escheats  of  such  rebels,  which 
castle  and  lordships  before  that  they  were  devas- 
tated and  destroyed  by  our  aforesaid  rebels  stood  of 
the  value  of  one  hundred  marks  per  annum  as  is 
said.  To  have  to  the  said  Robert  the  Castles  and 
lordships  aforesaid  with  all  the  said  profits,  com- 
modities and  appurtenances  from  the  fifteenth  day 
of  October  last  past,  until  the  full  age  of  Edmund, 
son  and  heir  of  the  Earl  of  March,  last  deceased 
and  so  on  from  heir  to  heir  until  any  one  of  the 
heirs  aforesaid  may  arrive  at  his  full  age.  Without 
rendering  anything  therefor  to  us  or  to  our  heirs  at 
our  exchequer  during  the  minority  of  the  heirs 
aforesaid.  So  always  that  the  said  Robert  has 
repaired  the  aforesaid  castle  and  tarried  in  the  same 
in  the  defence  and  keeping  safe  of  the  castle  and 
lordships  aforesaid.  And  in  case  that  the  Castle 
and  lordships  exceed  the  value  of  the  aforesaid 
hundred  marks  per  annum  the  said  Robert  shall 
answer  to  us  yearly  at  our  Exchequer  of  the  sur- 
plusage of  them  as  is  just.  In  testimony  whereof, 


THE    WHITNEY    NARRATIVE.  45 

&c.— Witness  the  King  at  Westminster  the   14th 
day  of  Feby.  1404. 

"  By  the  King  himself." 

The  two  estates  from  the  date  of  the  above, 
to-wit: — 1404,  to  the  present  time  have  been  united, 
and  belonged  to  the  Whitneys. 

From  the  recitals  in  the  above  grant,  it  would 
appear  that  the  service  of  the  Whitneys  in  return 
for  the  royal  favors  was  no  sinecure.  I  do  not 
know  how  many  of  them  gave  their  lives  in  the 
fierce  wars  against  the  Welch,  which  lasted  during 
several  reigns,  but  it  would  seem  that  they  fully 
vindicated  the  fighting  character  of  the  hardy 
Northman  from  whom  they  sprang. 

The  fair  Kosamund  (Rosa  Mundi,  Rose  of  the 
World),  celebrated  in  history  and  by  Tennyson  in 
his  Tragedy  of  Becket,  in  which  Miss  Ellen  Terry 
represents  the  fair  but  frail  country  beauty,  was 
born  in  the  castle  of  Clifford  before  it  was  granted 
to  Whitney. 

Notwithstanding  the  grant  of  Clifford  to  Whit- 
ney on  account  of  the  destruction  of  his  own  castle, 
tradition  soon  finds  him  back  in  a  new  castle  erected 
on  the  Whitney  estate,  where  subsequently,  on  the 
occasion  of  the  marriage  of  the  then  incumbent,  Sir 
Robert  Whitney,  to  Alice  Vaughan  was  produced 
the  following  wedding  song  or  Epithalamium,  writ- 
ten by  a  Welch  bard,  which  has  been  preserved  to 
the  present  time,  and  a  copy  of  which,  translated 


46  WILLIAM   WHITNEY   RICE. 

from  the  original  Welch,  has  been  furnished  me  by 
Miss  Dew. 

EPITHALAMIUM. 


Is  there  one  on  the  banks  of  the  Wye  has  the  humour 
Of  Squire  Robert  Whitney  ?  whom  God  ever  bless : 
Of  the  Cross  figured  mansion  how  staunch  is  the  eagle : 
From  Trysol  he  takes  his  descent  and  not  less. 

His  bridal  descent,  not  a  thought  it  needs  further, 
Thomas  Roger's  own  daughter  is  her  pedigree  : 
Tis  enough  if  he  chose  Mistress  Alice  to  marry ; 
Of  a  Sun  among  stars  his  selection  will  be. 

Of  the  Court  every  courser  with  stars  is  bespangled  ; 
The  liquor  and  viands  there  a  harbour  would  fill : 
Past  the  strong  towers  of  Robert  when  e'er  I've  to  travel 
His  watch  and  his  ward  make  my  blood  to  run  chill. 

This  master  of  mine  in  the  towers  of  his  father 
Newgate  holds  not  the  money  about  him  in  coin : 
The  parish  can't  number  his  men  in  plate-armour, 
And  his  steeds  and  his  spear  men  the  battle  to  join. 

There  sits  Mistress  Alice  all  retired  in  her  bower, 
With  her  money  and  treasures  so  grandly  array'd  ; 
On  a  Monday  she  puts  on  a  fine  robe  of  damask 
Of  Camlet  like  velvet,  with  pattern  display'd. 

O'er  her  cheek  and  her  temple,  of  gold  her  attire  is ; 
She  wears  garlands  and  scarlet  in  dignity  great : 
For  the  salmon's  own  lifetime  she'll  call  upon  Jesus, 
For  nine  lives  of  a  man  shall  she  bear  her  estate. 

All  Elvael's  invited,  so  lavish  is  Robert ; 
Of  his  store  freely  gives  he  to  me ;  nor  afraid 
As  a  justice  is  he  to  deliver  just  sentence 
WTheu  sitting  in  justice  on  some  Master  Cade. 


THE    WHITNEY   NARRATIVE.  47 

There  breathes  not  a  man  who  shall  prove  him  in  treason 
While  there  lives  boat  or  ship  with  an  anchor  at  sea : 
Permit  it  he  will  not,  he'll  never  give  reason  — 
While  the  moon  night  illumine,  or  blue  the  sky  be. 

As  all  the  world  knows,  in  my  Lord's  lordly  mansion 
Are  huntsmen  and  yeomen,  that  none  will  deny  ; 
In  its  stalls  stand  the  coursers  all  gilded  and  neighing, 
Bows  for  battle,  and  horns,  and  the  stag's  bleating  cry. 

In  Whitney  are  greyhounds,  of  hounds  too  a  hundred  ; 
There  huntsmen  in  plenty  all  ready  to  start ; 
With  kitchens  for  Christmas,  and  buttery  and  cellars; 
While  men  prattle  at  work,  many  cooks  ply  their  art. 

From  the  mansion  is  carried  loud  laughter  of  peasants, 
From  the  tower  that  of  many  an  unbidden  guest ; 
From  the  bridegroom  bring  progeny,  offspring,  descendants  ; 
From  the  bride  bring  a  blossom  —  a  line  to  be  blest. 

Amen — I  say,  too,  may  her  children  content  her, 
And  gladden  the  bosom  of  Whitney's  brave  Lord ; 
May  they  grow  in  their  mansion  in  lieu  of  good  liquor, 
And  in  the  White  Tower  where  riches  are  stored. 

My  lady's  fine  mansion,  my  lord's  goodly  mansion 
Is  the  Wretches'  asylum,  so  holy  is  she ; 
Tower  fairer  than  was  the  White  Tower  of  London, 
Is  Whitney's,  so  bounteous  and  gentle  is  he.  — 

What  mansion  save  that  on  the  headland  of  Alice 
Like  Sandwich  is  fashioned  like  five  on  the  dice? 
More  lofty  than  Joseph's  or  Sisera's  palace, 
The  fortress  on  Wye  will  grow  ever  in  size. 

Not  dearer  to  me  are  the  Houses  of  Charity, 
By  Lazarus  built  nor  Nudd's  own  on  the  Strand, 
Than  Whitney's,  as  peerless  for  wine  and  hilarity 
As  flowers  from  the  South  are  to  ev'ry  far  land. 


48  WILLIAM   WHITNEY   KICE. 

From  one  and  the  other  more  lavish  the  gifts  are 
Than  the  flow  of  the  stream  to  the  guileless  and  meek : 
So  the  wise  men  gave  Mary  the  gold  from  their  coffers ; 
From  far  when  they  travelled  their  Saviour  to  seek. 

Of  their  gold  ore  and  mead,  goods  of  both  and  of  either ; 
I  shall  ne'er  be  denied  by  this  well-wedded  pair : 
Their  land,  too,  will  revenue  bring  me,  and  raiment, 
Divers  herbs,  and  of  feasts,  too,  ne'er  fail  me  a  share  : 

Divers  dainties  shall  reach  us  from  plain  and  from  mountain, 
Divers  birds,  too,  and  fishes  fresh  out  of  the  sea : 
He  is  Arthur  himself  so  he  will  not  o'er  look  me ; 
His  Queen,  too,  Gwenhwyvai,  like  minded  is  she. 

Woe,  Woe,  to  the  Saxon  who  loves  not  their  Castle, 
Of  the  Welshman  who  scorns  them  be  told  a  sad  tale ; 
Nor  Daniel,  nor  Denis,  Cedwyn,  them  to  cherish, 
David,  Dwynwen,  Elias,  nor  Hilary  fail. 

May  thou  live  the  long  life  both  of  Noee  and  Moses  : 
Of  two  trees,  the  oak  female  and  male  be  their  age  : 
Late  let  them  be  parted  when  death  their  course  closes : 
Mary,  speedwell  its  outset,  make  happy  its  stage  : 

Yes,  late  be  their  parting  :  the  length  of  their  lifetime, 
From  Whitney  to  Monmouth  the  oldest  defy ; 
To  bestow,  with  their  links  of  pure  gold  many  collars, 
And  with  wine  crown  the  bowl  on  the  banks  of  the  Wye. 


They  became  connected  by  marriage  with  the 
best  families  of  the  section,  as  witness  the  marriage 
of  Sir  Robert  with  the  fair  Alice  Yaughan,  at  whose 
wedding  the  above  bridal  song  was  produced,  the 
Yaughans  being  among  the  most  distinguished  of 
the  noble  families  of  Wales3  from  whom  have 


THE    WHITNEY   NARRATIVE.  40 

sprung  many  eminent  men  both  in  England  and 
this  country. 

It  is  curious  to  notice  how  many  descendants 
spring  from  the  old  family  stocks.  As  in  this 
country  there  are  thousands  of  Whitneys  from  the 
emigrant  John,  so  in  England  there  have  been 
many  families,  some  of  them  at  a  distance  from  the 
old  home,  but  all  of  them  coming  from  the  original 
stock  of  Turstin.  It  is  not  part  of  my  purpose  to 
follow  any  of  these  to  the  places  where  they  are 
settled,  and  some  of  them  have  obtained  wealth  and 
distinction.  I  shall  confine  myself  to  the  old  stock 
at  the  old  castle  down  to  the  seventeenth  century. 

During  that  time,  in  addition  to  the  destruction 
of  the  castle  by  the  Welch  rebels,  already  referred 
to,  there  was  another  and  more  complete  destruc- 
tion by  the  freshet  of  the  river  Wye  which  swept 
away  the  old  castle,  and  the  old  church  with  the 
graves  and  monuments  of  the  Whitneys  who  had 
been  buried  there,  and  cut  a  new  channel  for  itself, 
changing  the  banks  of  the  stream  so  that  the  new 
church,  manor  house  and  other  buildings  are  on 
the  bank  opposite  where  they  originally  stood. 
Some  of  the  stones  of  the  old  church  were  built 
into  the  new  church,  where  they  may  still  be  seen. 
When  the  waters  of  the  river  are  low,  immense 
piles  of  the  ancient  ruins  can  be  seen,  where  they 
have  been  undisturbed  for  more  than  two  hundred 
years. 


50  WILLIAM   WHITNEY    KICE. 

This  destruction  by  the  freshet  of  the  Wye 
occurred  sometime  during  the  first  half  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  at  which  time  William  Warder, 
partly  by  descent  and  partly  by  purchase,  seems  to 
have  been  the  owner  of  the  entire  estate.  He  was 
descended  from  a  Sir  Robert  Whitney,  all  of  whose 
sons  died  without  issue,  by  a  daughter  Ann  or 
Hannah,  who  married  Robert  Rodd,  heir  of  an 
adjoining  estate.  He  rebuilt  the  buildings  which 
are  now  there,  and  his  descendants  continued  to 
occupy  them  until  the  present  time;  Sir  Tompkyns 
Dew  being  the  last  male  representative,  who  was 
the  father  of  the  little  girl  in  whose  name  the  estate 
now  stands.  Rev.  Henry  Dew,  the  present  rector, 
father  of  my  correspondent,  Miss  Jane,  is  a  younger 
brother  of  Sir  Tompkyns,  from  whom  he  derived 
the  living  of  Whitney. 

The  civil  wars  between  King  and  Parliament, 
between  the  Church  and  the  Puritans,  were  troublous 
times  to  the  Whitneys  of  Whitney,  staunch  royal- 
ists and  churchmen  as  they  were.  While  the  lineal 
representative  of  the  family  seems  to  have  still 
lingered  at  the  old  home,  yet  other  branches  seem 
to  have  been  scattered  in  all  directions.  In  this 
dispersion  we  may  leave  the  Whitneys  and  the 
families  descended  from  them  in  England,  and 
transfer  our  investigations  to  this  country,  which, 
as  we  shall  see,  has  become  the  home,  for  the 
last  two  hundred  and  fifty  years,  of  those 


THE   WHITNEY   NARRATIVE.  51 

with   whom  we  have  more  immediate  connection. 

[The  following  notes  were  received  from  Miss  Dew,  after  the 
foregoing  was  written.] 

Thomas,  father  of  John  Whitney  the  emigrant,  was  the  son  of 
the  last  but  one  Sir  Robert  of  Whitney. 

All  traces  of  Whitney  Castle  have  long  ago  disappeared.  It 
is  marked  as  a  ruin  on  Isaac  Taylor's  map  of  Herefordshire 
(1794),  and  its  site  was  almost  identical  with  that  of  old 
Whitney  Court,  which  stood  only  a  little  distance  from  the  pres- 
ent Court,  lower  down  the  stream  (of  the  Wye),  and  of  which  a 
massive  square-cut  beam  imbedded  in  the  right  bank  and  visible 
at  low  water,  marks  the  site. 

There  is  no  trace  or  local  tradition  of  the  site  of  a  chapel  near 
the  Court. 

Turstin  or  Torstinus,  i.  e.,  Turstin  Fitz  Rolf,  left  no  issue. 
The  father  of  Eustace  de  Whitney  and  husband  of  Agnes  de 
Maleberge  was  therefore  another  Turstin.  [Mrs.  Dawson.] 


in. 

WHITNEYS  IN  MASSACHUSETTS. 

1.  July  20, 1592,  John  Whitney  was  baptized  at 
St.  Margaret's  Church,  London.  He  was,  as  nearly 
as  I  can  determine,  son  of  Thomas  Avho  was  residing 
at  Lambeth  Marsh,  London,  whose  wife  was  Mary 
Bray,  daughter  of  John  Bray,  of  Westminster. 
There  is  evidence  that  Thomas  was  grandson  or 
great-grandson  of  Sir  Robert  Whitney,  the  last  of 
the  name  at  the  old  castle.  This  branch  had  drifted 
away  into  the  great  whirlpool  of  London  life;  and 
it  appears  probable  that  it  had  no  part  or  parcel 
in  the  ancient  inheritance,  and  had  even  forsaken 
the  faith  which  for  so  many  centuries  had  there 
been  entertained,  which  Miss  Dew  maintains  may 
well  be  inferred  from  the  Bible  names  the  emigrant 
gave  his  children. 

The  young  John  married  Elinor,  whose  surname 
I  do  not  know,  and  lived  at  or  near  Lambeth 
Marsh,  at  a  place  called  Isleworth,  where  their 
oldest  children  were  born.  In  1635,  in  all  proba- 
bility a  thoroughly  constructed  Puritan,  he,  with  his 
wife  and  five  children,  embarked  for  America. 
They  settled  in  Watertown,  where  he  continued  to 
reside  during  the  remainder  of  his  life.  He  seems 


THE   WHITNEY  NARRATIVE.  53 

to  have  been  a  man  of  respectable  character  and 
more  than  ordinary  education,  as  very  soon  after 
his  arrival  he  was  made  selectman  and  town  clerk. 
He  also  exhibited  a  trait  of  character  which  has 
been  possessed  by  many  of  his  descendants, — of 
obtaining  possession  of  landed  estates.  He  seems 
to  have  considered  it  a  duty,  however  many  children 
he  had,  to  obtain  a  tract  of  land  for  each  of  them. 
His  own  homestead,  where  he  lived  after  coming  to 
America,  seems  to  have  been  favorably  located  and 
in  the  vicinity  of  the  best  settlers  of  the  place. 
He  died  June  1,  1673,  over  eighty  years  of  age. 

2.  His   oldest   son,  John,  born   in  England   in 
1624,  married  Ruth  Reynolds,  of  Boston,  and  lived 
in  Watertown,  where  he  died  in  1692. 

3.  His  son  Nathaniel  was  born  in  Watertown, 
February  1,  1646,  and  died  in  Weston,  January  7, 
1732.     According   to   this   he   would  be  the  first 
Whitney  to  reside  in  Weston,  which  was  a  farming 
section  of  Watertown,  ultimately    set  oif  into   the 
new  town  of  Weston.     The  cellar  and  well  of  the 
original  Whitney  house,  built,  as  we  presume,  by 
Nathaniel,  are  still  plainly  to  be  seen,  while  a  few 
rods  distant  is  a  more  recent  house  in  which  the 
Whitneys  resided  generation  after  generation  down 
to   within  twenty   years  of  the   present  time,  and 
which  from  time  to  time  was  enlarged  to  accommo- 
date Whitneys,  seniors  and  juniors. 

Nathaniel   Whitney  married  Sarah   Hagar.     He 


64  WILLIAM  WHITNEY  RICE. 

died  in  Weston,  aged  about  ninety.  Eli  Whitney, 
inventor  of  the  cotton  gin,  was  a  descendant  of 
Nathaniel. 

4.  His  third  son,  William,  was  born  in  Weston, 
May  6,  1683.     He  married  Martha  Pierce. 

5.  Their  oldest  son  was  William,  born  in  Weston 
in  1706.     He  married  Hannah  Harrington  in  1735. 

6.  Their  oldest  son  was  William,  born  April  10, 
1736.     June  4,  1762,  he  married  Mary  Mansfield, 
and  a  few  years  later,  with  sons  William  and  Phine- 
has,  they  moved  to  Winchendon. 

Hereafter  I  confine  myself  to  William  Whitney 
and  his  descendants.  In  this  connection,  however, 
it  is  proper  to  say  that  Henry  Whitney,  probably  a 
cousin  of  John,  is  found  in  Connecticut  in  1649;  a 
descendant  of  his,  S.  Whitney  Phoenix,  a  wealthy 
and  liberal  citizen  of  New  York,  has  published  a 
genealogical  account  of  the  descendants  of  Henry, 
contained  in  three  volumes,  making  one  of  the  most 
sumptuous  family  records  in  America.  This  does 
not  include  any  of  the  descendants  of  John,  most  of 
Henry's  descendants  being  south  of  Massachusetts. 


IY. 

WILLIAM  WHITNEY  OF  WINCHENDON, 

William  Whitney  was  born  in  Weston,  April  10, 
1736.  He  was  married  in  Weston  to  Mary  Mans- 
field, June  14,  1762.  They  had  seven  children. 
(1)  William,  born  in  1765,  married  to  Ann  Hey- 
wood in  January,  1791.  He  lived  in  Gardner, 
where  he  died  in  1846.  (2)  Phinehas,  born  in 
Weston,  April  1,  1766,  died  May  10,  1831.  He 
lived  in  Winchendon.  (3)  Mary,  born  April  10, 
1773,  married  to  Benjamin  Heywood,  of  Gardner, 
where  she  lived  during  her  life.  She  was  mother  of 
Levi  and  Seth  Heywood,  who  built  up  the  large 
business  in  Gardner,  to  which  that  town  owes  so 
much  its  growth  and  prosperity.  (4)  Joseph,  born 
May  20,  1775.  He  lived  in  Winchendon.  (5) 
Amasa,  born  June  16,  1777,  died  February  2,  1852. 
He  lived  in  Winchendon,  where  he  was  largely 
engaged  in  business.  (6)  Sally,  born  September  3, 
1779,  married  to  Smyrna  Bancroft,  of  Gardner, 
where  she  lived.  (7)  Luke.  He  lived  in  Gardner. 

William  Whitney,  Sr.,  seems  to  have  begun  to 
buy  land  in  Winchendon  as  early  as  1769.  In  1774 
we  find  him  there  taking  part  in  the  affairs  of  the 
town.  He  had  a  large  farm,  situated  on  the  line 


56  WILLIAM   WHITNEY   RICE. 

between  Gardner  and  Winchendon.  He  seems  to 
have  been  an  excellent  farmer  and  a  man  of  thrift, 
who  accumulated,  for  those  days,  a  handsome  prop- 
erty. He  had  the  reputation  of  being  the  best  judge 
of  cattle  and  horses  in  those  parts.  He  represented 
the  town  in  the  General  Court  during  several  of 
the  last  years  of  his  life.  He  was  a  man  of  rather 
more  than  the  medium  size,  of  sturdy  and  healthy 
frame.  From  descriptions  given  me  by  my  mother 
and  aunts,  I  think  his  son  Amasa  resembled  him 
physically.  He  died  in  1816. 

His  wife,  Mary  Mansfield,  was  a  good  housewife, 
I  have  been  told,  of  very  industrious  and  pleasant 
character.  As  they  lived  four  miles  from  the  meet- 
ing-house, they  were  accustomed  to  ride  up  to 
meeting  on  horseback,  she  on  the  pillion  behind, 
according  to  the  fashion  of  those  days.  She  died  a 
few  years  before  her  husband.  They  are  buried 
side  by  side  in  the  Whitney  corner  of  the  burying- 
ground  in  Winchendon. 

William  Whitney,  Sr.,  died  possessed  of  a  farm 
containing  six  hundred  and  forty-eight  acres,  which 
was  sold  to  his  oldest  son,  William,  of  Gardner,  for 
seven  thousand  dollars.  I  believe  that  the  land  of 
this  farm,  almost  all  of  it,  is  still  owned  by  descend- 
ants of  William  Whitney.  He  was  an  excellent 
farmer,  a  very  conservative  man,  and  a  good  judge 
of  farming  land  and  all  things  pertaining  thereto. 
It  is  said  that  a  short  time  before  his  death  he  gave 


THE   WHITNEY   NARRATIVE.  57 

to  his  sons,  who  were  gathered  about  him,  the  ad- 
vice, "  Buy  land,  boys,  buy  land,"  which  some  of 
them  have  done  not  wholly  to  their  advantage. 

He  was  always  loyal  to  the  government  and  insti- 
tutions of  his  country,  like  his  English  ancestors 
before  him.  I  quote  the  story,  handed  down  by 
tradition,  as  illustrative  of  this  law-abiding  char- 
acter. 

"At  the  breaking  out  of  the  Shays  Rebellion, 
Winchendon  was  nearly  equally  divided  between 
the  government  and  the  followers  of  Shays.  The 
Governor  called  upon  the  towns  to  furnish  recruits 
to  put  down  the  rebellion,  Winchendon  with  the 
rest.  The  citizens  were  assembled  upon  the  com- 
mon for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  the  recruits  to  fill 
the  quota  of  Winchendon.  Party  feeling  ran  high. 
The  opponents  of  the  government  remonstrated 
bitterly  against  the  furnishing  of  any  recruits  from 
Winchendon.  As  was  the  fashion  in  those  days,  the 
drummer  paraded  up  and  down,  beating  his  drum, 
that  those  who  were  willing  to  join  the  company 
should  follow  him.  No  one  did  so.  Old  William 
Whitney,  then,  perhaps,  the  leading  farmer  in  the 
town,  was  on  the  ground,  favoring  the  government. 
Seeing  that  no  volunteers  offered  themselves,  he 
called  upon  his  son  Phinehas,  then  a  stalwart  and 
hardy  young  man,  saying  to  him  in  tones  that  were 
heard  by  all,  <  Fall  in,  Phin.,  fall  in.'  Phin.  fell  in 
and  the  company  was  soon  filled." 

I  have  often  heard,  when  a  child,  the  story  of 
that  fearful  march  in  pursuit  of  the  rebels,  whom 


58  WILLIAM   WHITNEY   RICE. 

they  overtook  and  scattered  at  Petersham.  That 
was  the  first,  but  by  no  means  the  last,  military 
service  of  Phinehas  Whitney,  who  after  that  became 
Captain  of  a  Cavalry  Company  of  Winchendon  and 
the  adjoining  towns,  which  office  he  held  for  a  long 
term  of  years. 

William  Whitney's  estate  was  appraised  Septem- 
ber 2,  1817,  at  sixteen  thousand,  four  hundred  and 
forty-eight  dollars  and  twenty-seven  cents  ($16,- 
448.27) ;  a  pretty  fair  amount  to  be  accumulated 
by  one  beginning  in  a  wilderness,  before  unbroken, 
in  1774. 


y. 

PHINEHAS  WHITNEY. 

7.  Phinehas  Whitney  was  the  second  son  of 
William,  Sr.,  and  was  born  April  1,  1766,  before 
his  removal  from  Weston.  He  married  in  Winch- 
endon  for  his  first  wife,  Phoebe  Stearns,  January  17, 
1793.  She  died  the  next  year,  April  7,  1794,  leav- 
ing a  son  Phinehas,  who  died  in  early  childhood. 

For  his  second  wife  he  married  Bethiah  Barrett, 
of  Westford,  February  16,  1796. 

Capt.  Phinehas  Whitney  was  a  very  active  and 
successful  business  man.  He  owned  the  tavern  in 
the  centre  of  the  town,  where  he  also  owned  and 
kept  the  country  store.  He  also  owned  and  carried 
on  several  farms;  the  largest,  perhaps,  that  con- 
nected with  the  tavern. 

Benjamin  Wilder  and  Phinehas  Whitney  bought 
this  tavern  property, — upon  which  was  built  one  of 
the  earliest  houses  in  Winchendon,  and  always  used 
as  a  tavern, — and  the  tract  of  land  connected  with  it, 
estimated  to  contain  one  hundred  and  eighty  acres, 
for  six  thousand  dollars,  September  8,  1801,  of 
James  McElwain  (pronounced  "Muchelwain"). 
The  next  year  Phinehas  Whitney  bought  of  Benja- 
min Wilder  his  interest  in  the  premises,  and  then 


60  WILLIAM    WHITNEY    RICE. 

took  up  his  residence  upon  it,  and  continued  the 
tavern,  which  had  been  kept  there  already  by  sev- 
eral previous  owners.  He  moved  to  this  place  from 
the  farm  known  as  the  "  Benjamin  Farm,"  which  he 
continued  to  own  during  his  life. 

He  was  a  man  of  great  energy  and  enterprise. 
He  was  accustomed  to  make  frequent  journeys  to 
Boston  for  the  purpose  of  exchanging  "Winchendon 
products  for  city  supplies.  He  used  to  make  his 
journeys  largely  in  the  night-time;  going  in  the 
night,  transacting  his  business  in  Boston  the  next 
day,  and  starting  for  home  on  the  coming  night. 

He  was  a  man  of  great  physical  strength  and 
was  active  in  all  athletic  sports,  of  which  I  used  to 
hear  stories  in  my  childhood.  He  was  a  man  fully 
six  feet  in  height,  with  broad  and  sinewy  shoulders 
and  very  long  arms.  He  had  brown  hair — rather 
thin  upon  the  crown.  He  was  a  very  kind  neigh- 
bor, and  was  one  of  the  first  to  visit  whoever  was 
sick  or  in  distress. 

He  always  had  several  men  in  his  employ  who 
were  known  as  capable  and  efficient  men  to  work. 
My  opinion  is,  that  in  those  days,  when  the  employer 
was  accustomed  to  lead  the  employees  in  their 
respective  departments  of  labor,  he  undertook  more 
enterprises  than  he  could  profitably  execute.  Hay 
which  was  cut  down  in  large  quantities  by  a  sturdy 
gang  in  the  morning,  was  not  always  cared  for  and 
gathered  before  the  storm;  and  the  sheep  on  the 


THE    WHITNEY   NARRATIVE.  61 

distant  pastures  were  not  always  safely  and  com- 
fortably housed  against  the  weather. 

I  remember  him  as  a  most  affectionate,  loving 
and  lovable  man,  always  attentive  to  the  comforts 
of  his  children  and  grandchildren.  His  large  family 
were  terribly  afflicted  by  his  comparatively  early 
death,  away  from  home  on  one  of  his  Boston  trips, 
broken  down  by  excessive  labor.  He  died  in  New- 
ton, May  10,  1831. 

Bethiah  Barrett  Whitney,  his  second  wife,  was  a 
model  woman.  If  her  husband  was  a  tireless  man 
of  business  in  the  outside  affairs,  she  was  as  indus- 
trious and  careful  in  all  matters  pertaining  to  the 
interior  arrangements  necessary  to  his  affairs.  She 
was  of  good  Lexington  stock,  her  mother  being 
Anna  Fiske,  and  her  grandmother,  for  whom  she 
was  named,  Bethiah  Muzzy.  Her  father  was  Oliver 
Barrett,  who  responded  as  a  minute-man  on  the 
nineteenth  of  April,  1776,  at  Lexington,  afterwards 
served  at  Bunker  Hill,  and  on  the  second  day  of 
January,  1777,  enlisted  in  the  Revolutionary  Army 
as  a  volunteer  from  the  town  of  "Westford,  and 
served  in  the  Massachusetts  Regiment  commanded 
by  Col.  Thomas  Marshall,  until  October  7,  1777, 
when  he  was  killed  in  battle  at  the  second  battle  6$ 
Stillwater,  between  the  North  American  Army,  un- 
der Gen.  Gates,  and  the  British  forces,  under  Gen. 
Burgoyne.  His  name,  by  the  side  of  his  wife,  is  on 
the  Whitney  monument  in  the  Whitney  burying- 


62  WILLIAM   WHITNEY   RICE. 

ground,  although  his  body  is  buried  in  an  unknown 
grave  somewhere  near  where  he  fell,  at  Albany,  I 
think. 

She  was  small  in  stature,  with  blue  eyes  and 
brown  hair,  leaving  the  impression  upon  the  children 
who  knew  her  and  still  remember  her,  of  great  dig- 
nity and  gravity.  I  do  not  remember  that  she  ever 
smiled,  nor  do  I  remember  that  a  cross  or  impatient 
word  ever  escaped  her  lips.  Through  the  large  and 
complicated  household  affairs  which  she  was  called 
to  superintend,  she  always  moved  with  the  most 
absolute  efficiency  and  self-possession.  I  do  not 
think  that  much  time  was  wasted  by  the  employees 
in  her  house,  either  at  the  tavern,  or  at  the  large 
and  better  house  which  her  husband  ultimately  built 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the  road. 

She  went  to  Winchendon  for  the  purpose  of 
teaching  school,  for  which  she  was  well  fitted;  and 
after  her  marriage  to  Capt.  Whitney  she  assumed 
the  leading  place  among  the  women  of  the  town, 
which  she  held  during  her  life.  She  died  at  the 
house  of  her  youngest  daughter,  Mrs.  Louisa  W. 
Lyman,  in  Marlborough,  New  Hampshire,  August 
2,  1849,  aged  74  years  and  7  months. 

Her  own  mother,  whom  she  is  said  to  have  very 
much  resembled,  passed  the  last  year  of  her  life  with 
her  in  Winchendon;  and  they  all  are  buried  in  the 
same  corner  of  the  old  Winchendon  burying- 
ground. 


THE    WHITNEY    NARRATIVE.  63 

Capt.  Phinehas  and  Bethiah  Whitney  had  eight 
children,  three  sons  and  five  daughters. 

Phoebe  Whitney,  born  April  5,  1797.  She  was  a 
tall  woman;  in  fact,  all  of  the  daughters  inherited 
the  stature  of  their  father  rather  than  of  their  mother. 
In  early  life  it  was  said  that  she  was  of  a  very  gay 
and  social  character,  which  could  scarcely  be  be- 
lieved by  those  of  us  who  knew  her  only  in  old  age 
as  one  of  the  gravest  and  most  dignified  of  women. 

She  married  Asa  Washburn  in  1817.  He  died 
in  1824.  They  had  two  sons,  Kelson  Phinehas 
Washburn,  born  October  14,  1818,  and  William 
Barrett  Washburn,  born  January  31,  1820. 

Nelson  Phinehas  Washburn  married  Elizabeth 
A.  Hills,  of  Peterborough,  N.  H.,  February  10, 
1845.  They  now  reside  at  Claremont,  where  he  is 
engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  boots  and  shoes. 
They  have  had  two  children.  (1)  Helen  Elizabeth, 
born  January  3,  1847,  and  married  to  Frank  P. 
Maynard,  February  10,  1876.  (2)  Charles  Nelson 
Washburn,  born  May  10,  1854,  married  to  Kate 
Alice  Brooks,  September  10,  1884.  Neither  of 
these  have  had  any  children.  Both  Frank  P. 
Maynard  and  Charles  Nelson  Washburn  are  en- 
gaged in  the  manufacture  of  boots  and  shoes,  with 
their  father,  at  Claremont,  under  the  name  of 
Maynard  and  Washburn. 

Hon.  William  Barrett  Washburn,  the  younger 
son  of  Asa  and  Phoebe,  entered  Yale  College  in  1840 


64  WILLIAM   WHITNEY  RICE. 

and  was  graduated  from  that  institution  in  1844. 
He  went  into  the  office  of  his  uncle,  William  Bar- 
rett Whitney,  of  whom  he  was  the  namesake,  at 
Orange,  Massachusetts,  and  ultimately  abandoned 
the  idea  of  studying  for  a  profession,  and  remained 
in  his  uncle's  employ  until  his  failure  in  business. 
He  succeeded  to  the  management  and  ownership  of 
the  business  of  his  uncle  and  soon  removed  to 
Greenfield,  which  was  a  more  convenient  location 
for  carrying  on  the  very  successful  business  in 
which  he  was  engaged,  to  wit,  the  manufacture  of 
lumber  and  wooden  ware. 

He  was  a  member  of  the  State  Senate  of  Massa- 
chusetts in  1850;  of  the  House  of  Representatives 
in  1854;  he  was  a  member  of  the  thirty-eighth, 
thirty-ninth,  fortieth,  forty-first  and  forty-second 
Congresses.  He  then  was  selected  by  the  opposition 
to  General  Butler  in  the  Republican  Party  for  the 
nomination  of  Governor  in  1871.  After  a  canvass 
almost  unprecedented  in  the  history  of  Massachu- 
setts politics,  he  was  nominated  in  Worcester  in  a 
convention  which  began  about  eleven  o'clock  A.  M. 
and  lasted  until  past  midnight.  None  who  were 
members  of  that  convention  will  ever  forget  it. 
Although  Mr.  Washburn's  managers  had  a  majority 
in  the  convention,  General  Butler  fought  with  his 
wonderful  skill  and  pertinacity  at  every  step,  and 
only  yielded  the  victory  when  the  result  could  be 
postponed  no  longer.  Mr.  Washburn  was  elected 


THE   WHITNEY   NAKEATIVE.  65 

by  a  large  majority  and  continued  to  occupy  the 
Governorship  until  April,  1874,  when  he  resigned, 
having  been  elected  United  States  Senator  to  fill 
the  unexpired  term  of  Charles  Sumner.  Upon  the 
expiration  of  this  term  he  retired  from  public  life, 
which  he  did  not  re-enter. 

In  1872,  Harvard  University  conferred  upon  him 
the  honorary  degree  of  LL.D.  He  was  president 
of  the  National  Bank  of  Greenfield  until  his  death. 
He  was  a  trustee  of  Yale  College  from  1869  to 
1881.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Overseers 
of  Amherst  College  and  trustee  of  the  Agricultural 
College,  at  Amherst;  also  of  Smith  College,  at 
Northampton,  and  the  Moody  School,  at  ISTorthfield. 
He  was  a  director  of  the  Connecticut  Biver  Rail- 
road. He  was  a  man  of  admirable  executive  and 
business  ability,  and  discharged  the  duties  of  all 
the  positions  which  he  was  called  upon  to  fill  to  the 
acceptance  of  those  whom  he  represented.  In  Con- 
gress he  was  the  chairman  of  the  committee  on 
claims,  and  it  used  to  be  said  of  him  that  when  he 
had  examined  a  claim  and  decided  upon  it  there  was 
no  need  of  any  further  examination  of  that  claim. 
He  was  a  leading  member  of  the  Congregational 
denomination,  and  died  at  Springfield,  October  5, 
1887,  instantly,  just  as  he  ascended  the  platform  of 
the  American  Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign 
Missions  then  assembled  there. 

Gov.  Washburn  was  a  man  of  rare   ability  in 


66  WILLIAM   WHITNEY   RICE. 

everything  that  he  undertook.  His  father  died 
when  he  was  a  child ;  and  for  some  years  he  and  his 
brother  Nelson  lived  with  their  grandfather,  Capt. 
Phinehas  Whitney,  in  Winchendon.  Here  they 
were  expected  to  work,  at  least  so  they  thought, 
beyond  the  strength  and  capacity  of  boys  so  young. 
He  often  sent  them  to  drive  droves  of  cattle  from 
Winchendon  to  Brighton,  stopping  over  night  at 
the  regular  places,  where  the  cattle  were  turned 
into  a  pasture  and  the  boys  slept  in  the  barns  or 
on  the  ground,  as  they  might  prefer.  Often,  too, 
the  grandfather  drove  his  loaded  wagon  from 
Winchendon  to  Boston,  one  of  the  boys  following 
with  a  second  wagon,  often  asleep  on  the  top  of  the 
load.  Sometimes  one  of  the  little  fellows  was  sent 
to  Boston  alone,  with  a  roll  of  money  sewed  up  in 
his  inside  clothing,  to  do  errands  for  his  grand- 
father. Gov.  Washburn,  after  this  training,  took  a 
high  rank  in  Yale  College;  and  it  is  no  wonder  that 
he  became  an  able  and  eminent  man.  He  accumu- 
lated a  large  property ;  and  his  widow  and  daughters 
still  reside  in  Greenfield  in  the  old  mansion-house, 
which  he  built. 

Like  his  grandfather  and  great-grandfather,  he 
had  an  almost  instinctive  knowledge  of  cattle  and 
horses,  which  they  all  seem  to  have  inherited  from 
the  old  Hereford  County  in  England,  where  the 
family  originated. 

He  married  Hannah  A.  Sweetser  of  Athol,  Sept. 


THE   WHITNEY   NARRATIVE.  67 

6,  1847.  Her  father  was  a  large  farmer  and  cattle 
dealer,  in  which  business  Mr.  Washburn  had  become 
an  adept  while  with  his  grandfather  in  Winchen- 
don.  They  had  six  children,  two  sons  and  four 
daughters. 

(1.)  Maria  Augusta  Washburn,  born  Novem- 
ber, 1849.  She  died  in  infancy. 

(2.)  William  Nelson  Washburn,  born  July  30, 
1851.  He  graduated  at  Yale  in  1874.  July  21, 
1880,  he  married  Jennie  E.  Daniels,  of  Chicago. 
They  have  had  two  children,  but  one  of  whom  sur- 
vives, Lelia  Atkinson  Washburn,  born  April  28, 
1884. 

(3.)  George  Sweetser  Washburn,  born  October 
16, 1854.  He  died  in  May,  1870.  He  was  a  bril- 
liant young  man,  and  had  begun  a  course  of  study 
intending  to  graduate  at  Yale,  and  then  enter  upon 
a 'professional  life. 

(4.)  Anna  Richards  Washburn,  born  August 
16,  1856.  She  married  Walter  Osgood  Whitcomb. 
They  reside  in  New  Haven,  where  he  is  a  member 
of  the  firm  of  Charles  B.  Rogers  &  Co.,  manufac- 
turers of  bedding  and  brass  and  iron  bedsteads. 
They  have  had  no  children. 

(5.)  Clara  Spencer  Washburn,  born  March  18, 
1860. 

(6.)     Mary  Nightingale  Washburn,  born  July  2, 

1861. 

Phcebe  Whitney  married  for  her  second  husband 


68  WILLIAM   WHITNEY   KICE. 

Mr.  John   Woodbury,   of   Winchendon,   in   May, 

1827.  He  died  in  Winchendon,  December  5,  1870, 
aged  eighty-six  years  and  four  months.     They  had 
one  child,  Mary  Jane  Woodbury,  born  March  11, 

1828,  and  died  October  11,  1840. 

Thus  Phoebe  Whitney,  mother  of  Nelson  Phine- 
has  and  William  Barrett  Whitney,  has  at  the  present 
time  but  one  grandchild  of  the  second  generation. 
She  died  at  the  home  of  her  son,  Nelson  Phinehas 
Washburn,  in  Nashua,  March  7,  1876,  aged  nearly 
seventy-nine  years. 

Lucy  Whitney,  the  second  daughter  of  Capt. 
Phinehas  and  Bethiah  Whitney,  born  June  4,  1799, 
died  July  18,  1893,  aged  ninety-four  years,  one 
month  and  fourteen  days.  She  married,  March  29, 
1825,  Rev.  Benjamin  Rice,  of  Deerfield,  Mass.  He 
died  in  Winchendon,  July  12,  1847. 

Rev.  Benjamin  Rice  was  born  in  Sturbridge, 
Mass.,  May  9,  1784.  He  graduated  at  Brown  Uni- 
versity in  1808,  studied  divinity  at  Andover,  and 
graduated  at  that  seminary  in  the  class  of  1811. 
He  was  a  good  man,  an  acceptable  preacher;  and 
his  children  have  always  remembered  him  as  a  most 
aifectionate  and  indulgent  father,  taken  from  them 
at  too  early  an  age. 

Lucy  Whitney,  his  wife,  like  all  the  daughters  of 
Capt.  Phinehas  and  Bethiah  Barrett  Whitney,  was 
tall  in  stature,  of  great  mental  and  physical  strength ; 
accompanying  her  husband  through  his  pastorates 


THE   WHITNEY  NARRATIVE.  69 

in  Maine  and  Massachusetts,  she  left  everywhere  a 
most  enviable  reputation.  When  young  her  health 
was  quite  delicate,  and  her  father  and  mother 
despaired  of  her  reaching  years  of  maturity.  She 
was,  however,  given  for  those  days  an  uncommonly 
good  education  for  a  girl.  I  have  heard  her  name 
some  of  the  academies  where  she  attended, — among 
which  were  Bradford,  Amherst  and  Leicester, — of 
all  of  which  I  was  accustomed  to  hear  entertaining 
reminiscences  during  my  childhood.  She  was  gen- 
erally carried  to  and  from  the  academies  by  her 
father,  for  whom  she  always  entertained  an  affection 
amounting  almost  to  idolatry.  His  death,  in  1831, 
was  followed  by  an  illness  of  hers,  which  for  some 
time  threatened  to  prove  fatal. 

She  was  inspired  with  an  impression  that  her 
children  should  all  be  educated  as  she  had  been; 
and  to  accomplish  that  end  no  sacrifice  or  labor  on 
her  part  was  too  great  or  exacting.  She  was 
economical  and  thrifty  in  all  her  household  affairs 
that  she  might  save  money  for  this  purpose. 

After  the  death  of  her  husband,  in  1847,  she 
bought  a  portion  of  the  estate  of  her  brother,  Will- 
iam Barrett  Whitney,  on  which  the  old  hotel  origi- 
nally stood,  but  which  had  been  removed  and  a  small 
house  built  on  the  old  site  by  her  brother,  and  occu- 
pied by  him  until  his  removal  to  Orange.  This 
estate  she  occupied  for  many  years  and  continued 
to  own  it  at  her  death. 


70  WILLIAM   WHITNEY   RICE. 

Of  course  a  son  may  be  pardoned  his  partiality 
for  his  mother;  but  I  can  truthfully  say  that  I  never 
knew  a  woman  of  such  determined  and  unconquer- 
able spirit,  of  such  keen  perceptions  and  affectionate 
devotion  as  was  hers.  Spared  through  a  life  of 
unusual  length,  with  remarkable  health  in  her  old 
age  excepting  rheumatic  attacks,  with  an  unclouded 
mind,  taking  an  interest  in  everything  pertaining  to 
the  country  and  her  own  family  almost  to  the  day  of 
her  death,  she  died  in  Hubbardston  at  the  residence 
of  her  daughter,  Mrs.  Hitchcock,  of  no  special 
disease  but  old  age. 

We  buried  her  in  the  old  burying-ground  at 
Winchendon,  where  she  rests  by  the  side  of  her 
husband,  and  near  her  father  and  mother  and 
grandfather  and  grandmother  and  other  relatives, 
beneath  the  shadow  of  old  Monadnock,  which 
looked  into  the  cradle  in  which  she  was  rocked  as 
a  child. 

They  had  three  children:  William  Whitney  Rice, 
born  in  Deerfield,  March  7,  1826;  Lucy  Ann  Rice, 
born  in  Deerfield,  September  26,  1827;  Charles 
Jenkins  Rice,  born  in  New  Gloucester,  Maine,  July 
2,  1832. 

William  Whitney  Rice  fitted  for  college  at  Gor- 
ham  Academy,  Maine;  graduated  at  Bowdoin  in 
1846.  He  was  sick  at  his  mother's  home  in  Winch- 
endon  for  a  year  after  graduation.  He  was  a  pre- 
ceptor at  Leicester  Academy  for  four  years.  He 


THE   WHITNEY   NARRATIVE.  fl 

then  studied  law  with  Hon.  Emory  Washburn,  and 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1854.  In  1858  he  was 
appointed  Judge  of  Insolvency,  by  Gov.  Banks.  In 
1860  he  was  elected  Mayor  of  Worcester.  He  was 
District  Attorney  for  the  Worcester  District  five 
years,  from  1869  to  1874,  but  he  resigned  to  accept 
an  election  to  the  Massachusetts  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, to  which  he  was  sent  to  oppose  the 
division  of  Worcester  County.  In  1876  he  was 
elected  to  Congress,  where  he  served  five  terms. 
He  then  returned  to  the  practice  of  law,  in  which 
he  has  been  engaged  to  the  present  time,  being 
senior  member  of  the  firm  of  Rice,  King  and  Rice, 
in  Worcester.  He  is  a  Director  of  the  City  Na- 
tional Bank,  Vice-President  of  the  People's  Savings 
Bank,  and  a  member  of  the  Worcester  Board  of 
Trade.  He  is  also  a  member  of  the  Overseers  of 
Bowdoin  College,  of  the  Trustees  of  Clark  Univer- 
sity, of  the  Worcester  Polytechnic  Institute,  and  of 
Leicester  Academy. 

He  was  married  November  21,  1855,  to  Cornelia 
A.  Moen,  of  Stamford,  Connecticut.  They  had  two 
children.  (1)  William  Whitney  Rice,  born  May 
31,  1858,  died  February  10,  1864.  (2)  Charles 
Moen  Rice,  born  in  Worcester,  November  6,  1860. 
He  fitted  for  college  at  Exeter  Academy,  and  grad- 
uated at  Harvard  University  in  1882.  He  studied 
law  at  Harvard  Law  School,  and  in  his  father's 
office.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  Worcester  in 


72  WILLIAM   WHITNEY   EICE. 

February,  1886,  and  is  now  the  junior  member  of 
the  firm  of  Rice,  King  and  Rice. 

Cornelia  A.  Moen  Rice  died  at  Worcester,  June 
16,  1862,  aged  twenty-nine  years  and  eight  months. 

Mr.  Rice  married  for  his  second  wife  Alice  Miller, 
daughter  of  Henry  W.  Miller,  of  Worcester,  Sep- 
tember 28,  1875.  She  was  born  in  Worcester,  July 
22,  1840.  They  have  had  no  children. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Rice  spend  a  portion  of  the  summer 
months  on  the  old  place  in  Winchendon,  owned  by 
Phinehas  Whitney  in  1802. 

Lucy  Ann  Rice  was  married  to  Rev.  Milan  Hub- 
bard  Hitchcock,  September  24,  1857.  They  have 
been  missionaries  at  Ceylon  and  at  Constantinople. 
They  returned,  that  Mrs.  Hitchcock  might  care  for 
her  mother  in  her  extreme  old  age.  They  reside  at 
Hubbardston,  Mass.  They  have  had  no  children. 

Charles  Jenkins  Rice  was  married  to  Sarah  M. 
Cummings,  February  1,  1872.  She  was  born  in 
Winchendon,  June  5,  1842.  Mr.  Rice  always 
resided  in  Winchendon,  on  the  place  owned  by  his 
mother,  which  was  a  part  of  the  old  tavern  property 
owned  by  Phinehas  Whitney  in  1802.  He  was  en- 
gaged in  the  business  of  manufacturing  and  dealing 
in  lumber.  When  a  college  education  was  offered 
him  by  his  mother,  he  declined  it,  preferring  to  be 
a  business  man. 

He  was  possessed  of  a  great  many  of  the  traits  of 
his  grandfather,  Phinehas  Whitney.  Old  men  used 


THE  WHITNEY  NARRATIVE.  73 

to  say,  when  they  saw  him  walking  across  Winch- 
endon  common,  that  he  reminded  them  of  Capt. 
Phinehas.  He  had  the  same  instinctive  knowledge 
of  land,  of  cattle  and  of  horses,  which  seems  to  have 
characterized  his  ancestors.  His  judgment  of  all 
values  was  most  correct  and  reliable,  hence  he  was 
frequently  selected  as  appraiser  of  estates. 

Independent  in  his  own  principles,  he  soon  be- 
came a  leading  man  in  the  town,  and  for  many  years 
before  his  death  was  the  regularly  chosen  moderator 
of  all  the  town  meetings.  Probably  no  man  in  town 
had  a  greater  influeuce  than  Mr.  Rice. 

He  was  a  leading  man  in  the  church  to  which  his 
grandfather  belonged,  and  was,  like  him,  always  the 
friend  and  helper  of  the  sick  and  needy. 

He  was  an  unswerving  republican,  and  Winch- 
endon  always  gave  a  very  large  majority  to  the 
republican  candidates  during  his  life. 

In  1884  he  was  elected  to  the  Massachusetts  House 
of  Representatives,  to  which  he  was  re-elected. 

He  died  May  3, 1892.  He  was  buried  in  the  same 
lot  with  his  father  and  mother  in  the  old  Winchen- 
don  burying-ground.  They  had  no  children. 

William  Barrett  Whitney,  son  of  Capt.  Phinehas, 
lived  in  Winchendon  during  the  earlier  part  of  his 
life  and  was  engaged  in  farming.  Later  in  life  he 
moved  to  Orange,  where  he  was  engaged  in  the 
manufacture  of  lumber  and  of  wooden  ware. 

He  was  married  December  20, 1827,  to  Lois  Stone 


74  WILLIAM  WHITtfEY  RICE. 

of  Fitzwilliam,  N.  H.  While  he  resided  in  Win- 
chendon  he  was  a  prosperous  man,  carrying  on  a 
business  similar  to  that  of  his  father  and  grandfather. 
After  moving  to  Orange  he  built  up  a  very  large 
and  prosperous  business,  his  unusual  knowledge  of 
the  values  of  land,  especially  of  woodland,  being  of 
much  advantage  to  him.  He  was  always  ready  to 
buy  land  and  to  enter  upon  new  business  operations, 
with  some  of  which  he  was  unacquainted.  Many  of 
these  were  successful,  but  some  of  them  were  not, 
which  resulted  in  his  pecuniary  embarrassment  and 
the  liquidation  of  his  affairs,  in  which  he  was  suc- 
ceeded by  his  nephew  and  namesake,  William  Barrett 
Washburn,  who  continued  with  great  success  the 
business  enterprise  commenced  by  his  uncle. 

He  was  a  man  of  kind  nature,  of  great  industry 
and  ambitious  to  carry  on  a  large  business.  After 
his  embarrassment  at  Orange  he  sought  new  fields 
of  enterprise  in  Warren,  Penn.,  and  ultimately  in 
Vineland,  N.  J. 

After  the  marriage  of  his  daughters  and  the  death 
of  his  wife  he  came  back  to  his  old  home  in  Win- 
chendon,  where  he  spent  some  time  with  his  nephew, 
Charles  J.  Rice,  busying  himself  about  the  scenes  of 
his  childhood.  He  died  at  the  house  of  his  daugh- 
ter, Elizabeth  Ellen  Stevens,  in  Cambridge,  Massa- 
chusetts, February  15,  1874.  He  and  his  wife  and 
their  only  son  are  buried  in  the  Whitney  corner  of 
the  old  burying-ground. 


THE  WHITNEY  NARRATIVE.  75 

They  had  four  children,  one  son  and  three  daugh- 
ters, all  born  in  Winchendon. 

(1)  Charles  Milton  Whitney  was  born  Decem- 
ber 31,  1828.      He  died  at  Orange,  January  24, 
1843. 

(2)  Elizabeth  Ellen  Whitney  was  born  Septem- 
ber 2,  1831.     She  died  in  infancy. 

(3)  Elizabeth  Ellen   Whitney,  2nd,  was  born 
August  2,  1834. 

(4)  Louisa  Lyman  Whitney  was  born  August 
8, 1836. 

Elizabeth  Ellen  Whitney,  2nd,  was  married  April 
27,  1854,  to  Abraham  W.  Stevens,  a  Unitarian  cler- 
gyman. He  is  now  pursuing  a  literary  life,  residing 
at  Cambridge.  They  have  had  three  children,  all 
boys. 

(1)  Harold  W.  Stevens,  born  January  26, 1859. 
He  graduated  at  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Tech- 
nology and  is  now  engaged  in  the  National  Bank  of 
the  Republic,  in  Boston,  Mass.     He  was  married 
December  4, 1880,  to  Frances  Elizabeth  Ball.     They 
have  one  child,  Harold  Parker  Stevens,  born  in  Cam- 
bridge, January  2, 1882. 

(2)  Charles  Herbert  Stevens,  born   in  Barre, 
April  20,  1860.     He  graduated  at  Harvard  College 
in  1882.     He  is  engaged  in  the  Law  Publishing 
House  of  C.  C.  Soule  in  Boston. 

(3)  Ralph  Leslie  Stevens,  born  in  Cambridge, 
November  10, 1870,  is  still  pursuing  his  studies. 


76  WILLIAM  WHITNEY  RICE. 

Louisa  Lyman  "Whitney,  youngest  daughter  of 
William  Barrett  Whitney,  was  married  September 
4,  1855,  to  Jason  Asbury  Morrison.  He  died  May 
15, 1865. 

They  had  but  one  child,  a  son  named  William 
Barrett  Morrison,  born  in  Warren,  Penn.,  April  8, 
1863.  Being  of  delicate  health  his  mother  removed 
with  him  to  Denver,  Col.,  where  he  has  since  been 
engaged  in  the  State  National  Bank. 

Mary  Whitney,  third  daughter  of  Capt.  Phinehas 
and  Bethiah  Whitney,  was  married  at  Winchendon, 
January  22,  1828,  to  Alvah  Godding,  M.  D.  She 
died  in  Winchendon,  November  15,  1870. 

They  moved  in  early  life  from  the  old  centre  to 
the  new  village,  where  she  was  the  leader  in  society 
and  in  all  good  works  and  charities.  In  her  youth 
she  was  called  handsome  on  account  of  her  vivacity 
and  quickness  of  motion.  She  always  took  a  great 
interest  in  public  aifairs,  and  I  doubt  if  any  man  in 
Winchendon  was  better  posted  in  them  than  she. 
Always  hospitable  and  generous,  her  home  was  a 
favorite  resort  for  many  friends. 

Dr.  Godding,  her  husband,  was  a  physician  of  the 
old  school.  He  rode  a  large  circuit,  upon  which  I 
do  not  think  there  was  a  better  loved  man  than  him- 
self. He  ministered  to  the  sick,  not  only  to  their 
diseases  but  also  to  their  necessities,  and  his  carriage 
carried  to  the  houses  of  his  patients  baskets  of  food 
and  dainties  from  his  own  house  as  often  as  pills  and 


THE    WHITNEY   NARRATIVE.  77 

purgatives  from  the  apothecaries.  He  died  in  Win- 
chendon  January  11,  1875. 

They  had  one  son,  "William  Whitney  Godding, 
born  in  Winchendon,  May  5,  1831.  He  graduated 
at  Dartmouth  College  in  1854.  He  completed  his 
studies  at  Castleton  Medical  College,  Vermont, 
where  he  graduated  in  1857.  He  practiced  his  pro- 
fession for  some  years  in  Winchendon  and  in  Fitch- 
burg,  but  he  early  became  attracted  to  practice  for 
the  insane.  He  was  assistant  physician  at  the  New 
Hampshire  Asylum  for  the  Insane  at  Concord  from 
1859  to  1862.  In  1863  he  was  appointed  assistant 
physician  at  the  Government  Hospital  for  the  Insane 
at  Washington  known  as  St.  Elizabeth's.  In  1870 
he  was  appointed  Superintendent  of  the  State  Luna- 
tic Asylum  at  Taunton,  Massachusetts,  where  he 
remained  seven  years.  In  1877  he  was  recalled  to 
Washington  where  he  was  appointed  Superintendent 
of  the  Government  Hospital  for  the  Insane,  which 
position  he  still  holds.  There  are  few  posts  of 
greater  care  and  responsibility  than  that  occupied  by 
Dr.  Godding,  and  he  is  at  the  present  time  recog- 
nized as  one  of  the  first  authorities  in  the  country  on 
the  subject  of  insanity. 

He  married  on  December  4,  1860,  Ellen  Roanah 
Murdock  of  Winchendon.  They  have  had  three 
children,  two  daughters  and  one  son. 

(1)  Mary  Patten  Godding,  born  February  22, 
1867. 


78  WILLIAM   WHITNEY   EICE. 

(2)  Rowena  Murdock   Godding,  born  July  7, 
1870. 

(3)  Alvah  Godding,  born  February  8,  1872. 
They  reside  in  Washington,  although  Dr.  Godding 

always  intends  to  spend  a  portion  of  the  summer  in 
his  native  town. 

Sarah  Ann  Whitney,  the  fourth  daughter  of  Capt. 
Phinehas  and  Bethiah  Whitney,  was  first  married, 
August  28,  1832,  to  Josiah  Brown  of  Winchendon. 
He  was  a  man  very  much  respected  by  his  townsmen. 
He  died  September  29,  1836.  They  had  one  son 
who  died  in  infancy. 

She  married  for  her  second  husband,  April  23, 
1839,  Capt.  Charles  W.  Bigelow,  of  Winchendon. 
They  had  one  son,  Charles  Edwin  Bigelow,  born 
March  18,  1843. 

He  graduated  at  Williams  College  in  1866.  He 
was  married  to  Jennie  Mary  Bobbins  of  Groton, 
June  23, 1868.  They  had  one  child  who  died  on 
the  day  he  was  born.  They  reside  in  New  York 
City,  spending  their  summers  in  the  beautiful  town 
of  Groton. 

He  is  President  of  the  Knowles  Steam  Pump 
Works  in  New  York,  where  he  has  been  since  1867. 
He  is  a  very  able  and  energetic  business  man,  and 
occupies  positions  of  financial  trust  in  New  York 
City. 

Louisa  Whitney,  the  youngest  daughter  of  Capt. 
Phinehas  and  Bethiah  Whitney,  was  married 


THE   WHITNEY   NARRATIVE.  79 

December  4,  1835,  to  Rev.  Giles  Lyman,  a  Congre- 
gational clergyman.  They  had  no  children.  He 
died  in  Winchendon  November  16, 1872.  She  died 
December  5,  1892,  at  the  house  of  her  nephew, 
Charles  J.  Rice,  on  the  spot  where  she  was  born. 

Here  I  end  the  record  of  the  descendants  of 
Phinehas  and  Bethiah  Whitney.  I  recollect  them 
all.  I  consider  my  grandfather  and  grandmother 
as  very  remarkable  persons,  and  as  I  review  their 
descendants  I  do  not  think  they  have  proved  un- 
worthy of  their  origin.  The  five  daughters  of 
Capt.  Phinehas  and  Bethiah  each  filled  notable 
places  in  society,  and  each  of  them  filled  those 
places  worthily. 

They  are  all  gone  now  and  they  will  soon  be 
forgotten,  but  their  children  and  grandchildren  who 
knew  them  will  never  forget  them. 

After  investigating  the  history  of  a  family  we 
become  interested  in  the  family  traits  as  far  as  we 
have  observed  them,  and  I  feel  an  interest  in  the 
Whitney  family  on  account  of  the  hasty  and  imper- 
fect investigations  which  have  resulted  in  these 
records,  and  because  I  am  one  of  the  family. 

I  imagine  that  there  is  always  a  certain  type 
which  belongs  to  a  family  which  may  be  traced  in 
the  different  ramifications  of  the  family,  of  course 
modified  very  much  by  the  associations  and  connec- 
tions, but  still  retaining  through  all  something  of 
a  permanent  individuality.  Some  families  are  of 


80  WILLIAM   WHITNEY   RICE. 

stronger  character,  more  marked  peculiarities  than 
others,  and  I  am  pleased  to  imagine  that  this  pecu- 
liarity lasts  in  the  race  through  many  generations. 
Especially  do  I  find  an  enduring  strength  in  the  old 
English  families.  They  were  a  strong  type  of  men 
who  came  here.  It  required  self-reliance,  boldness, 
determination,  to  abandon  the  country  of  their 
birth,  where  their  fathers  had  dwelt,  and  cross  the 
ocean  to  settle  in  a  new  and  untried  country,  and 
those  characteristics  were  increased  by  the  peculiar 
experiences  through  which  they  were  called  upon  to 
pass  in  their  new  home. 

I  do  not  think  that  the  Whitney  family  was 
remarkable  above  other  families  for  prominence  in 
these  characteristics,  but  it  seems  to  me  that  I  can 
see  evidences  wherever  I  find  them  of  certain  uni- 
form traits  which,  to  me,  go  to  make  up  a  Whitney 
individuality.  Heredity  is  one  of  the  most  remark- 
able elements  of  humanity,  and  I  fancy  that  some 
characteristics  which  existed  in  the  family  in  old 
England  have  continued  to  exist  in  New  England. 

I  mention  among  these,  first,  that  the  family  has 
increased  and  greatly  multiplied  in  numbers.  This 
is  a  remark  applicable  also  to  all  families  which  we 
can  trace  with  any  degree  of  continuity.  I  find 
that  there  are  very  many  Whitneys  throughout 
England,  and  also  through  all  the  countries  settled 
by  English  speaking  men.  It  is  said  that  thirty- 
two  thousand  descendants  of  old  John  Whitney  of 


THE   WHITNEY   NARRATIVE.  81 

Watertown  may  be  found  in  the  United  States,  and 
how  many  uncounted  thousands  have  been  in  the 
home  country  and  other  countries  of  the  English 
people ! 

I  think  that  the  Whitneys  are,  physically,  a  strong 
race.  This  does  not  mean,  of  course,  that  there 
are  not  and  have  not  been  a  great  many  weak  and 
unhealthy  members  of  the  race,  but  I  think  that  old 
Torstinus,  founder  of  the  family,  has  not  entirely 
passed  away  from  among  his  descendants.  As 
we  have  seen,  he  was  a  hardy  Norman,  warlike, 
trusted  by  his  King,  and  as  long  as  I  can  trace  the 
line  of  those  who  directly  inherited  his  manor  and 
his  property,  they  seem  to  have  belonged  to  the  type 
of  their  ancestor.  Of  course,  as  I  have  said,  a 
family  type  is  modified  by  location,  by  intermar- 
riages, and  by  the  thousand  circumstances  which 
attend  the  lives  of  all,  but  wherever  I  find  Whitneys 
I  find  that  their  prevailing  physical  characteristic  is 
strength  and  endurance. 

Second,  I  think  that  in  the  various  communities 
where  they  have  lived  they  have  maintained  a  re- 
spectable position,  never  attaining  any  very  marked 
prominence,  but  still  assuming  and  faithfully  per- 
forming the  duties  of  respectable  and  efficient 
members  of  the  societies  where  they  have  lived. 

Again,  I  think  that  they  have  generally  shown  a 
capacity  for  affairs  rather  more  than  ordinary  among 
their  associates.  I  think  they  have  possessed  ten- 


82  WILLIAM   WHITNEY  RICE. 

dencies  to  engage  in  agricultural  employments. 
Wherever  I  find  them  I  find  them  with  good  farms 
and  especially  good  farm  buildings.  Yery  often, 
rather  oftener  I  think  than  with  most  families,  they 
built  in  the  town  where  they  found  early  settlement, 
large  houses,  generally  square-built  farmhouses, 
which  seemed  to  satisfy  them  without  much  addition 
of  exterior  ornament. 

Old  John  Whitney  of  Watertown  acquired  large 
landed  property,  much  of  which  was  distributed 
among  his  children  daring  life,  and  this  characteris- 
tic to  acquire  land  and  cattle  seems  to  have  been  a 
leading  one  with  the  family. 

The  family  seems  to  have  evinced  rather  remark- 
able mechanical  skill.  Eli  Whitney  has  been  said  to 
have  produced  a  greater  change  in  affairs  than  al- 
most any  other  man.  His  invention  of  the  cotton- 
gin  made  cotton  a  king.  Upon  the  vast  increase  of 
the  cotton  crop  in  the  South,  caused  by  his  invention, 
the  system  of  slavery  sprang  into  a  mighty  power 
and  maintained  itself  against  all  the  influences  of 
civilization  for  generations.  In  after  life  he  still 
evinced  the  same  mechanical  ingenuity,  the  products 
of  which  may  still  be  seen  in  the  village  which  he 
established  in  Connecticut  and  the  manufacturing 
establishments  there  which  have  grown  out  of  his 
enterprise.  I  note  many  other  Whitneys  whose  me- 
chanical skill  has  been  of  national  importance. 

Quite  early  in  the  history   of  the  country  the 


THE   WHITNEY  NARRATIVE.  83 

Whitneys  were  marked  by  the  desire  of  obtaining 
liberal  education,  and  I  think  that  we  should  find  in 
the  list  of  college  graduates  quite  as  great  a  number 
of  this  name  as  of  almost  any  other. 

They  have  held  high  places  in  the  church  and  in 
the  mercantile  life  of  the  cities.  In  New  York  and 
Boston  the  Whitney  family  has  furnished  many  of 
the  most  enterprising  and  respectable  merchants. 

I  would  sum  up  all  by  saying  that  the  family  has, 
from  the  beginning,  maintained  itself  among  the  first 
in  position  among  its  neighbors,  in  enterprise  in  the 
various  kinds  of  business  into  which  it  has  entered, 
and  in  maintaining  a  constant  character  of  usefulness 
and  successful  enterprise  in  the  various  communities 
where  its  members  have  been  found. 

I  think  that  the  old  Norman  from  whom  the 
family  sprang  was  a  sturdy,  well-developed  warrior, 
of  fully  average  size  and  strength,  with  light  hair 
and  light  complexion,  and  that  this  type  of  physique 
has  come  down  from  him  to  the  present  generation 
in  a  marked  degree. 

While  there  is  nothing  to  be  proud  of,  nothing  to 
excite  a  boastful  feeling  among  the  American  Whit- 
neys, I  would  say  that  they  have  all  maintained 
themselves  in  such  a  manner  that  no  one  need  blush 
that  he  is  obliged  to  recognize  his  relations  to  that 
family  rather  than  to  others  that  have  had  higher 
positions  in  wealth  and  worldly  honor. 


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